Smart Needle with Intelligent Robotic Control for Prostate Brachytherapy

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PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Brachytherapy procedure is one of the most popular treatment modalities for prostate cancer where cancerous cells are irradiated and destroyed locally by the radioactive dosage of seeds implanted by the surgeon. The success of brachytherapy heavily relies on safe and precise placement of the seeds in or adjacent to the cancerous cells. The procedure demands a very experienced surgeon who have developed an intuitive feel in needle insertions and is able to guide the needle into a desired location with hand-eye coordination and assistance of an imaging device. However, with conventional rigid needles, only a straight path is achievable towards the target, and thereby seed placements require several insertions with a high tissue damage on the needle’s path. A recent study has shown that guiding the needle in a curvilinear approach will decrease the number of needle insertions required and provide other dosimetric benefits. Lack of actuation and control (after the needle is inserted into the patient’s body) is another factor that make the procedure challenging. A flexible 3D steerable “smart” needle with multi-directional actuation and a reliable guidance control and guidance can aid the surgeon to perform the task with more accuracy, reduced invasiveness, and in a curvilinear approach. Furthermore, teleoperative guidance for the smart needle will endow the robotic instrument with intelligence. On the other hand, in-depth understanding of the needle-tissue interaction mechanism (with intraoperative model parameter updates and shape- and force-sensing) is a key factor in development of an appropriate control and guidance strategies to compensate for system uncertainties. This work will first develop an active “smart” brachytherapy needle that will provide robust actuation, shape- and force-sensing, and 3D motion in tissue. Then a teleoperative interface with robot-driven smart needle will be developed to perform semi- automated brachytherapy. Realistic analytical and computational models of needle-tissue interactions will be developed using realistic tissue characteristics. These models will be used in the control system as dynamic models to make appropriate decisions during an insertion task. The innovative features of our proposed methods rely on our cutting-edge smart needle design, new dynamic models, shape- and force-sensing, and control algorithm specifically developed for this application. The present studies will develop a clinically acceptable size “smart” surgical needle with a robotic control interface and evaluate its impact in brachytherapy procedure. Utilization of active and passive flexible needles for diagnosis and therapeutic procedures is a rapidly advancing filed. This proposed research has a high potential to lead to a revolutionary needle insertion practice in healthcare that is also beneficial to various needle-based procedures such as drug delivery, biopsy, and interventional therapy where an accurate placement is needed with minimal tissue damage.