Image Guided Prostate Therapy Core
Clare Tempany, M.D., Core PI
Prostate cancer represents one of the most significant challenges in medicine and public health facing the US healthcare system today. Its increased diagnosis has led to a virtual epidemic of the disease. The Image Guided Prostate Therapy Core is working on applying an interactive comprehensive MR image-guided program for the diagnosis and treatment of localized prostate cancer. To that end, it has developed an MR-guided brachytherapy program. Since these procedures began significant advances have been made in MR guidance for localization, navigation and the delivery of therapy, like those seen today in neurosurgery. The Core is thus adapting and translating these tools and advances. MRI is uniquely suited to imaging the prostate as it allows excellent visualization of the gland, its boundary, its substructure and all surrounding tissues. Already, the Core has developed the software module MRProstateCare (in collaboration with the Computation Core) for use with the NCIGT's own computerized surgical navigational platform, Slicer, a computer navigational module for MR-guidance to help plan, control, and direct prostate biopsies.
The Core's main goal is to thus adapt recent advances in an open MR system to the diagnosis and treatment of men with prostate cancer. The challenge is to increase the information content of intraoperative image data by using multimodal features while at the same time preserving the interactivity and the near real-time features of intraoperative imaging. If this can be achieved, the precise delivery of treatment to maximize tumor control and to minimize side effects will be reached and will improve the patients quality of life after treatment. Post operative/treatment morbidity is critical to the growing number of prostate cancer patients who are choosing prostate brachytherapy as their primary treatment.
Objectives
Overall to accomplish its goals, the Image Guided Prostate Therapy Core has the following aims: to adapt our approach to allow MR guided prostate biopsies to be performed so that the diagnosis and localization of prostate cancer may be improved by utilizing MR guidance for prostate biopsy; to implement and evaluate a fully integrated delivery system that will allow preoperative and intraoperative MR images of the prostate to be available on-line in the operating room (an image segmentation and registration method will be available in the operating room that will allow use of all accessible image based information for MR-guided brachytherapy); and to develop an MR and CT quality assurance program as there is a need for a reliable and accurate method to perform post implant dosimetry.
Projects
NCIGT Projects in the which the Prostate Core provide leadership and central input are:
- Prostate Imaging
- Prostate Focused Ultrasound
- Prostate Computation