Image Guided Thermal Therapy for Prostate Cancer

描述（由申请人提供）：2003年美国将诊断出大约190,000例前列腺癌新病例，今年30,400名美国男性将死于前列腺癌。在美国，每年治疗前列腺癌的费用已经达到17.2亿美元。虽然有很多治疗前列腺癌的潜在方法，但一个单一的“最佳治疗方法”尚未出现，特别是对于早期前列腺癌的治疗。目前的许多疗法都有明显的副作用和/或与之相关的风险。由于这个原因，人们一直致力于开发针对早期局限性前列腺癌的微创方法。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Approximately 190,000 new cases of prostate cancer will be diagnosed in the U.S. in 2003, and this year 30,400 American men will die from prostate cancer. In the United States, the annual cost of treating prostate cancer has reached $1.72 billion. While there are a significant number of potential courses for treating prostate cancer, a single "best treatment" has not yet emerged, especially for managing early prostate cancer. Many current therapies have significant attendant side effects and/or risks associated with them. For this reason, continued effort has been expended toward development of minimally invasive means of targeting early-localized prostate cancer. In this Phase II SBIR application, we propose to develop and test a system for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) guided laser ablation of localized prostate cancer. The system will use multiple interstitial laser delivery probes to effect targeted treatment volumes in the prostate. A laser/computer workstation precisely controls the deposition of laser energy based on processing of real-time temperature sensitive MR images acquired during therapy. An advanced Visualization and control interface will allow the user to specify and update therapeutic targets during treatment. This system will be tested in a canine tumor model of prostate cancer. Based on our prior experience, we believe that this system will offer an improvement in treatment of prostate cancer through minimally invasiveness, improved targeting accuracy, and feedback of real-time information about treatment progression.