RF Time Series Flashlight for Targeted Prostate Biopsy

前列腺癌仍然是加拿大男性中最常见的癌症，每年约有25，000例新发病例。 鉴于使用前列腺特异性抗原早期检测前列腺癌（PCa）的变幻莫测， 应加强对本病的诊断和分级，以提高临床治疗水平。高等级PCa必须 早期和准确地诊断，以适当地治疗发病率和死亡率风险较高的患者。而这个 必须与低级别PCa的过度治疗相平衡，这可以通过主动监测来最小化。黄金 PCa诊断和分级的标准是经直肠超声（TRUS）引导活检，然后进行病理学检查。TRUS引导 通过使用标准方案从前列腺中取出8至12个组织样本来进行活检， 个体患者解剖学或病理学，并且具有高的假阴性率。磁共振的最新进展 影像学（MRI）有助于提高高级别PCa的检出率。不幸的是，单靠MRI无法准确地 诊断PCa。此外，在TRUS引导活检期间，必须准确定位MR中识别的癌灶。目前， 这需要复杂的机械平台来引导活检针 充分考虑活检期间发生的患者运动或器官变形。 我们提出了一种交钥匙技术，我们命名为RF手电筒，其中来自超声RF信号的时间序列的信息是 与MR信息一起沿着使用，以改善临床干预的高级别癌症的检测。我们也 设计先进的超声成像方法，以实现徒手活检中通过MRI识别的癌灶定位;我们的 方法补偿患者或临床医生的运动。这项技术有可能积极和迅速地影响 所有患者的生命。

Prostate cancer remains the most common cancer diagnosed in men in Canada, with about 25,000 new cases per year. Given the vagaries of early detection of prostate cancer (PCa) with the use of prostate specific antigen, there is an acute need to enhance detection and grading of this malignancy in order to improve its clinical management. High grade PCa must be diagnosed early and accurately to appropriately treat patients at higher risk of morbidity and mortality. Meanwhile, this has to be balanced against over-treatment of low grade PCa which can be minimized via active surveillance. The gold standard for PCa diagnosis and grading is Transrectal ultrasound (TRUS)-guided biopsy followed by pathology. TRUSguided biopsy is performed by taking eight to 12 tissue samples from the prostate using a standard protocol that is blind to individual patient anatomy or pathology and has a high rate of false negatives. Recent advancements in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have helped improve high grade PCa detection rate. Unfortunately, MRI alone is not able to accurately diagnose PCa. In addition, cancer foci identified in MR have to be accurately located during TRUS-guided biopsy. Currently, this requires either sophisticated mechanical platforms to guide the biopsy needles or, if performed by software, does not fully account for patient motion or organ deformation occurring during biopsy. We propose a turnkey technology we name RF Flashlight, where information from a time series of ultrasound RF signals is used along with MR information in order to improve the detection of high grade cancer for clinical intervention. We also design advanced ultrasound imaging methods to enable localization of cancer foci identified by MRI in freehand biopsy; our method compensates for patient or clinician motion. This technology has the potential to positively and rapidly impact the lives of all patients.