Next Generation Micro-ultrasound Technology for Detection and Monitoring of Prostate Cancer

在这个项目中，我们建议结合加拿大在超声成像方面的三项进展，以实现一种新的、准确的癌症检测和监测解决方案。我们将以前列腺癌（PCa）作为测试案例。这是加拿大第二大常见癌症，每年约有25,000例新病例，预计到2021年，pc诊断和监测的全球市场将达到270亿加元/年。侵袭性前列腺癌的准确检测可以通过手术切除前列腺来有效治疗患者，同时降低疾病复发的风险。它还允许对癌症进展进行持续监测，这是提高生活质量、降低发病率和提高患者生存率的关键。然而，目前的检测和监测方法并不可靠：现有的超声引导前列腺活检无法准确定位肿瘤，而最近开发的磁共振成像（MRI）方法显示前列腺癌的假阳性率非常高，并且遗漏了小的和可能侵袭性的癌症。此外，MRI非常昂贵，而且在加拿大，除了大城市中心之外，没有广泛使用，导致诊断延迟，临床结果更差。我们独特的技术有望以高分辨率捕捉前列腺组织的变化。在我们的主要知识翻译合作伙伴Exact Imaging的帮助下，我们将在患者身上验证这一点。此外，我们将把自然科学和临床科学领域的专家与临床医生聚集在温哥华前列腺中心，他们将使用这项技术。我们将遵循在招聘和研究中纳入性别和性别多样性的最佳做法，并将培养两名博士生、三名本科生、三名泌尿学研究员和一名研究工程师。

In this project, we propose to combine three Canadian advancements in ultrasound imagingto implement a new and accurate solution for detection and monitoring of cancer. We will useprostate cancer (PCa) as a test case. This is the second most common cancer in Canadianmen, with about 25,000 new cases per year, and the expected global market for diagnosisand monitoring of PCs is $27B CAD/year by 2021. Accurate detection of aggressive PCaenables effective treatment of patients through surgical excision of the prostate with minimalrisk for recurrence of disease. It also allows continuous monitoring of cancer progression,which is key to improve quality of life, reduce morbidity and increase patient survival.However, current detection and monitoring methods are not robust: the establishedultrasound-guided prostate biopsy is unable to accurately locate tumors, and recentlydeveloped magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) approaches to visualize PCa have a very highrate of false positives and miss small and possibly aggressive cancer. Furthermore, MRI isvery costly and not widely available in Canada except in large, urban centres, leading todelayed diagnosis with worse clinical outcomes. Our unique technology promises to capturechanges in prostate tissue at high-resolution. We will validate this in patients with the help ofour principal knowledge translation partner, Exact Imaging. In addition, we will bring togetherexperts across natural sciences and clinical sciences with clinicians who will use thetechnology, at the Vancouver Prostate Centre. We will follow best practices in incorporation ofsex and gender diversity in recruitment and research, and will train two PhD students, threeundergraduate students, three urology fellows and one research engineer.