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

这个i-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发可以显著改善癌症治疗结果的术中机器人触诊设备。我们的设备想要解决的一个主要问题是，通过术前成像和微创手术中的操作，很难识别大小为亚厘米的肿瘤。我们的机器人触诊设备可以部署到患者的身体中，并以高空间分辨率快速生成病理区域的组织硬度图。通过实现对肿瘤的准确和快速检测，无论肿瘤大小，这项技术都可以显著提高肿瘤切除手术的结果。这项技术在术中肿瘤检测之外具有广泛的潜在应用。它具有识别包括纤维组织在内的病变组织的能力，这些组织的物理特征发生了变化。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，提供了宝贵的量化信息，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的决策。这个i-Corps项目是基于一种机器人触诊设备的开发，该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发现肿瘤，这些肿瘤在X光、CT或MRI等成像技术上可能看不到，特别是那些小于1厘米的肿瘤。然而，与机器人辅助手术相关的一个持续存在的技术挑战是，外科医生在手术过程中无法触摸和感觉组织。由于外科医生失去了触觉，小肿瘤可能仍未被发现，导致肿瘤切除不彻底，从而导致癌症进展、复发和转移。这一创新是一种可以在手术过程中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的“机械手指”。这项创新将使外科医生能够以显著提高的准确性和分辨率精确定位所有肿瘤，最终导致改善患者预后并减少癌症复发和转移。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.