TRANS-FUSIMO · Clinical Translation of Patient-Specific Planning and Conduction of FUS Treatment in Moving Organs

MR-guided Focused Ultrasound Surgery (MRgFUS) combines high intensity focused ultrasound for thermal ablation of diseased tissue with MR imaging to visualise the tumour and surrounding anatomy and to provide MR thermal feedback.However, MRgFUS treatment of the liver and other abdominal organs present tremendous technological challenges, including motion due to breathing and shielding of the target by the rib cage.To tackle these challenges, the VPH project FUSIMO has set out to develop a planning system for MRgFUS capable to deal with moving abdominal organs.TRANS-FUSIMO will translate the FUSIMO demonstrator into a clinically applicable system spanning the full clinical workflow of planning, conduction and assessment as well as learning from the procedure:1) Extension of the FUSIMO demonstrator to support conduction and assessment of the intervention under breathing motion2) Interfacing state-of-the-art FUS hardware and imaging devices to build an integrated real-time-capable system for liver FUS3) Improving model components for optimized clinical workflow, real-time applicability and validated outcome prediction4) Allowing training and learning using the FUSIMO software system by building a case and result database5) Conduction of pre-clinical (phantoms, cadaver, animal) experiments of the FUSIMO systemIn a clinical trial, the feasibility of using the integrated system for neoadjuvant MRgFUS to achieve prolonged survival will be investigated.As a final project result, the integrated system will be close to certification status and subsequent commercialization. With such an integrated real-time system, FUS can become a commercially and clinically competitive alternative to current surgical and minimal-invasive oncological interventions, thus providing a non-invasive treatment, reducing side-effects, and healthcare costs.