Diplomarbeit / Masterarbeit / Bachelor thesis (DA/MA/BA): Validation of Navigated Beta Probe Application in Cancer Surgery

Advisor: Nassir Navab
Supervision by: Joerg Traub and Thomas Wendler

Abstract

In minimally invasive tumor resection, the desirable goal is to perform a minimal but complete removal of cancerous cells. In the last decades interventional nuclear medicine probes supported the detection of remaining tumor cells. However, scanning the patient with an intraoperative probe and applying the treatment are not done simultaneously. In the past we extended the one dimensional signal of a nuclear probe to a four dimensional signal including the spatial information of the distal end of the probe (current status). This signal can be then used to guide the surgeon in the resection of residual tissue and thus increase its spatial accuracy while allowing minimal impact on the patient. The next step is to prepare clinical experiments and integrate the solution into the clinical workflow. The student in charge of this project will contribute in that step by designing ex-vivo (and eventually in-vivo) experiment protocols, preparing the experimental setup and evaluating the experiments on their own.

Task

Design, preparation and evaluation of experiments (for more details see abstract above or live demo at Klinikum rechts der Isar).

Requirements

• Basic knowledge: Statistics and ad-hoc software.
• Recommendable knowledge: C++, Matlab.
• Interest in medical technology (You will work most of the time at Klinikum rechts der Isar at NaNuLab).

What you get out of it

• Experience with different fields of research in computer science: Augmented Reality, Computer Graphics, Visualization, Software Engineering
• Knowledge about clinical/surgical workflow, medical technology
• Work on an exciting research topic within an interdisciplinary and international research team
• Finally a diploma thesis and your degree

Literature

	T. Wendler, A. Hartl, T. Lasser, J. Traub, S. Ziegler, N. Navab Tracking-based statistical correction for radio-guided cancer surgery Proceedings of World Molecular Imaging Congress (WMIC 2008), Nice, France, September 2008 (bib)
	A. Hartl, T. Wendler, J. Traub, T. Lasser, S. Ziegler, N. Navab Confident radioactivity surface reconstruction for control of resection borders Proceedings of Annual Meeting of Society of Nuclear Medicine (SNM 2008), New Orleans, USA, June 2008 (bib)
	N. Navab, J. Traub, A. Buck, S. Ziegler, T. Wendler Navigated nuclear probes for intra-operative functional imaging Proceedings of 5th IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging (ISBI 2008), Paris, France, May 14 - 17 2008 (to appear) (bib)
	N. Navab, J. Traub, T. Sielhorst, M. Feuerstein, C. Bichlmeier Action- and Workflow-Driven Augmented Reality for Computer-Aided Medical Procedures IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, vol. 27, no. 5, pp. 10-14, Sept/Oct, 2007 (bib)
	T. Wendler, J. Traub, A. Hartl, T. Lasser, M. Burian, A. Buck, F. Daghighian, M. Schwaiger, S. Ziegler, N. Navab Adding navigation to radio-guided surgery: new possibilities, new problems, new solutions Proceedings of Russian Bavarian Conference on Biomedical Engineering (RBC Biomed 2007), Erlangen, Germany, July 2-3, 2007, pp. 96-100 (bib)
	T. Wendler, J. Traub, S. Ziegler, N. Navab Validation of navigated beta-probe imaging with PET/CT-generated activity surfaces. New approach in radio-guided resection for FDG-positive tumors Proceedings of Annual Meeting of Society of Nuclear Medicine (SNM 2007), Washington D.C., USA, June 2007 (bib)
	O. Kishenkov, T. Wendler, J. Traub, S. Ziegler, N. Navab Method for projecting functional 3D information onto anatomic surfaces: Accuracy improvement for navigated 3D beta-probes Proceedings of Bildverarbeitung fuer die Medizin (BVM 2007), Munich, Germany, March 2007, pp.66-70 (bib)
	T. Wendler, J. Traub, S. Ziegler, N. Navab Navigated three dimensional beta probe for optimal cancer resection Proceedings of Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention (MICCAI 2006), Copenhagen, Denmark, October 1-6 2006, LNCS 4190 (1), pp. 565-569 (bib)

Contact

If you are interested in this project, please send an email to Joerg Traub or Thomas Wendler. Alternative projects in the field of medical navigation systems and augmented reality visualization are available on request.