PROJECT TITLE: AUTOMATIC TREATMENT PLANNING OF CERVICAL CANCER HIGH-DOSE RATE BRACHYTHERAPY FOR LOW-RESOURCE SETTINGS

项目名称：低资源环境下宫颈癌高剂量近距离治疗的自动治疗计划

• 批准号: 10707838
• 负责人: RON LIANG
• 金额: $ 40万
• 依托单位: VELOXAI LLC
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-09-15 至 2023-09-14
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10707838
• 关键词: 3-Dimensional; Affect; Brachytherapy; Cancer Burden; Clinical; Collaborations; Complex; Disease; Ensure; High-Dose Rate Brachytherapy; Human; Malignant neoplasm of cervix uteri; Medical center; Phase; Problem Solving; Process; Radiation therapy; Recurrence; Resource-limited setting; Resources; Site; Small Business Innovation Research Grant; Treatment outcome; automated segmentation; commercialization; improved; innovation; low and middle-income countries; novel; software systems; standard of care; therapeutically effective; tool; treatment planning

Cervical cancer is a major disease globally and 85% of the cancer burden occurs in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Standard of care is external-beam radiotherapy with high dose-rate brachytherapy (HDRBT). Adding brachytherapy to the treatment course improves overall survival by 12% and reduces local recurrence. HDRBT treatment planning is a complex process. Brachytherapy in low-resource settings often do not have adequate human expertise for this task, limiting the wide-spread use of this effective therapeutic form and significantly affecting treatment outcomes. Aiming at solving this problem, VeloxAI, a spin-off of UT Southwestern Medical Center (UTSW), proposes a Phase-I SBIR project in collaboration with clinical experts at UTSW to develop AutoBrachy, the world first software system to realize fully automatic treatment planning of cervical cancer HDRBT. We will pursue two specific aims: Aim1, to develop automatic segmentation tools and rigorously refactor AutoBrachy to plan for commercialization; Aim2, to implement AutoBrachy at multiple participating sites, including those in LMICs, to evaluate its feasibility and merit. The innovation of our project is that it enhances HDRBT of cervical cancer in low-resource settings by utilizing novel computational approaches. Deliverability is ensured by extensive preliminary studies and the partnership with complementary expertise and resources.

宫颈癌是全球的主要疾病，85%的癌症负担发生在低收入和中等收入国家（LMIC）。标准治疗是外射束放射治疗和高剂量率近距离放射治疗（HDRBT）。在治疗过程中增加近距离放射治疗可使总生存率提高12%，并减少局部复发。HDRBT治疗计划是一个复杂的过程。在低资源环境中的近距离放射治疗通常没有足够的人类专业知识来完成这项任务，限制了这种有效治疗形式的广泛使用，并显着影响治疗结果。为了解决这个问题，UT西南医学中心（UTSW）的子公司VeloxAI与UTSW的临床专家合作，提出了一个第一阶段SBIR项目，以开发AutoBrachy，这是世界上第一个实现宫颈癌HDRBT全自动治疗计划的软件系统。我们将追求两个具体目标：目标1，开发自动分割工具并严格重构AutoBrachy以计划商业化;目标2，在多个参与站点（包括中低收入国家的站点）实施AutoBrachy，以评估其可行性和优点。我们项目的创新之处在于，它通过利用新的计算方法在低资源环境中增强了宫颈癌的HDRBT。通过广泛的初步研究以及与互补的专门知识和资源的伙伴关系，确保了可验证性。