I-Corps: A Minimally Invasive Palpation Device for Intraoperative Tumor Detection

这个I-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发术中机器人触诊设备，可以显着改善癌症治疗的结果。我们的设备旨在解决的一个主要问题是，通过术前成像和微创术中手术难以识别尺寸为亚厘米的肿瘤。我们的机器人触诊设备可以部署到病人的身体，并迅速生成一个组织硬度地图在病理区域具有高空间分辨率。通过精确和及时地检测肿瘤，无论其大小如何，该技术可以显着提高肿瘤切除手术的结果。该技术在术中肿瘤检测之外具有广泛的潜在应用。它有能力识别病变组织，包括纤维化组织，其物理特性已经发生改变。总而言之，这项尖端技术具有无与伦比的识别病变组织的能力，提供了宝贵的定量信息，使临床医生能够自信地做出关于最有效治疗策略的数据驱动决策。 这个I-Corps项目是基于开发一种机器人触诊设备，可以帮助外科医生在微创机器人辅助癌症治疗手术中检测肿瘤。在开胸手术中，外科医生经常依靠手动触诊来检测在成像技术（例如X射线、CT或MRI）上可能不可见的肿瘤，尤其是小于1 cm的肿瘤。然而，涉及机器人辅助手术的持续技术挑战是外科医生在手术期间无法触摸和感觉组织。由于外科医生失去触觉，小肿瘤可能无法被发现，导致肿瘤切除不完全，这可能导致癌症进展、复发和转移。这项创新是一种“机器人手指”，可以在手术期间部署到患者体内，并调查病理组织区域，以生成与必须手术切除的肿瘤组织的存在相关的组织硬度图。这一创新将使外科医生能够以更高的准确性和分辨率精确定位所有肿瘤，最终改善患者预后，减少癌症复发和转移。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of intraoperative robotic palpation device that can significantly improve the outcome of cancer treatment. A major problem that our device intends to solve is that tumors with sub-centimeter in their size are difficult to identify via preoperative imaging and during minimally invasive intraoperative procedures. Our robotic palpation device can be deployed into the patient’s body and quickly generate a tissue stiffness map at the pathologic region with a high spatial resolution. By enabling precise and prompt detection of tumors, regardless of their size, this technology can significantly enhance the outcomes of tumor resection surgery. This technology has a wide range of potential applications beyond intraoperative tumor detection. It has the capability to identify diseased tissues, including fibrotic tissues, whose physical characteristics have undergone alterations. Altogether, this cutting-edge technology has the unparalleled ability to identify diseased tissues, providing invaluable quantitative information to empower clinicians to confidently make data-driven decisions about the most effective treatment strategies. This I-Corps project is based on the development of a robotic palpation device that can help surgeons to detect tumors during minimally invasive robot-assisted cancer treatment surgery. In open chest surgery, surgeons frequently rely on manual palpation to detect tumors that may not be visible on imaging techniques, such as X-ray, CT, or MRI, especially those small than 1 cm. However, a persistent technical challenge involving the robot-assisted surgery is the surgeon’s inability to touch and feel the tissues during the surgery. As a result of the surgeon’s loss of tactile sensation, small tumors can remain undetected, leading to incomplete tumor removal that can cause cancer progression, recurrence, and metastasis. This innovation is a “robotic finger” that can be deployed into the patient’s body during surgery and survey the pathologic tissue areas to generate a tissue stiffness map that is correlated to the presence of tumorous tissues that must be removed surgically. This innovation will offer surgeons the ability to pinpoint all tumors with substantially improved accuracy and resolution, ultimately leading to improved patient outcomes and a reduction in cancer recurrence and metastasis.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.