Project description
Research training consortium on electroporation as a minimally invasive cancer treatment
The traditional cancer treatment methods are surgery, systemic chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Minimally invasive procedures have been gaining in relevance, and they include brachytherapy (local radiation dose), thermal ablation (local heating) and electroporation (locally applied high-pulsed electric field). With electroporation, tissue areas become reversibly susceptible to enhanced take-up of anticancer drugs, or they are destroyed by precise irreversible electroporation. Funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the ElectroPros project is setting up a research training network with the aim of preparing young researchers for the evolving technology related to minimally invasive oncology therapies. During their training, the early stage researchers will focus on electroporation-based cancer treatment, addressing shortcomings of the currently available equipment and enhancing the reliability of patient-specific electroporation therapy.
Objective
The ElectroPros action aims to optimally prepare young researchers for the evolving technology in the healthcare space, especially related to minimal invasive oncology therapies, by offering a unique set of targeted interdisciplinary training and research assignments in the areas of biophysics modelling and simulation, device physics, optimization algorithms, software integration and experimental validation. Four European Industrial Doctorate positions are offered to Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) for a period of three years. In the training program a combination of industrial, academic and clinical research environments are provided by Philips, the University Clinic Aachen and RWTH Aachen, to explore the field of electroporation, as a new and promising technique for minimal invasive oncology treatment.
Based on sound career development plans, and coached by experienced supervisors, the four ESRs involved will develop a competence profile which will springboard their future career in the wide European medical community in the industrial, clinical and academic domain. These researchers have the potential to become pioneers for new minimally-invasive therapies for the oncology domain.
During their training, the ESRs will work on electroporation based treatment of cancer. The ESRs address shortcomings of the currently available equipment to enable for the first time ever a reliable patient-specific electroporation based treatment for cancer. With a focus on liver cancer, the ESRs will collectively establish novel insights on the biophysical effects on various tissues, important to understand the treatment effect, and integrate this knowledge in optimal device (needle) design and multi-physics models for treatment outcome prediction and inverse planning algorithms. Furthermore, the developed assets will be integrated in clinical prototype software to support and optimize the clinical workflow.
Fields of science
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencessoftware
- medical and health sciencesclinical medicineoncologyliver cancer
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiophysics
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencescomputational sciencemultiphysics
- natural scienceschemical scienceselectrochemistrybioelectrochemistryelectroporation
Keywords
Programme(s)
Coordinator
5656 AG Eindhoven
Netherlands