Ultrasound imaging system with injection arm (Teilfinanzierung)

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A major aim of the Hopp Children’s Cancer Center (KiTZ), which is a joint institution of the University Hospital Heidelberg and the German Cancer Research Center, is to bring research and clinical work together to develop individualized targeted therapy concepts and allow a fast clinical translation with the overall aim to improve the treatment of children with cancer. The international registry trial INFORM provides a clinical sequencing workflow to identify specific vulnerabilities in every individual patient in order to identify potential targeted therapeutic options. Recently, a personalized drug screening of short-term cultures of the tumor tissues was included as well. In addition, PDX (patient derived xenograft) mouse models are established from the tumor tissues to generate model systems. These models can be used for an individualized drug screening, but are in addition important models for pre-clinical drug development in general. Currently, models for extracranial solid tumors can only be implanted subcutaneously. However, orthotopic (in the original organ of tumor development) implantation mimics the situation in the patient more closely. Unfortunately, surgical implantation of tumor tissue into the various target organs is not feasible in the setting of INFORM. Ultrasound imaging systems can be combined with an injection arm to perform ultrasound-guided injections into mice. Ultrasound-guided injection allows a minimally-invasive implantation of tumor tissues into different target organs. Since it is much faster and requires less specialized surgical skills, it is well suited for the use in the INFORM PDX project. Moreover, the procedure is less invasive and debilitating for the mice. Furthermore, the orthotopic tumors can be monitored in 3D in situ with the ultrasound imaging system in a faster, cheaper and less stressing way compared to MRI imaging. The Doppler mode allows measurement of the vascularization of the tumors, which is important to monitor the functions of fast acting drugs. The imaging of small target organs in mice requires measurements in a frequency range of 20 to 55 MHz. Such a system will significantly improve the generation of preclinical models and preclinical development at the KiTZ. It will be mainly used by the INFORM PDX team (90%) and in addition will be used for preclinical studies on neuroblastoma (5%) and pediatric sarcoma (5%). In general, every researcher form the KiTZ and University Hospital can use the system if it has spare capacity.