Autonomous ultrasound imaging for organis position monitoring during radiotherapy

An ultrasound patch is an imaging device that can be attached semi-permanently to a patient for clinical monitoring without the immediate presence of a sonographer. Development of such devices is proceeding rapidly and early demonstrations have taken place but applications with a clinical rationale have still to be explored. One such application is in ultrasound guided radiotherapy (USGRT). Around 65,000 people / year receive radiotherapy for cancer in the UK and autonomous imaging is essential to target treatment accurately and spare normal tissue. Target position-verifying X-ray CT has poor contrast and the accuracy of irradiating cancer in some organs is limited by positional uncertainty (e.g. liver, uterocervix) and/or organ motion (e.g. pancreas, kidney). The combination of MRI and a radiation delivery system is possible but extremely costly, limiting its adoption. Similarly, USGRT of prostate cancer is possible by transperineal autonomous scanning once the probe is positioned. However, for other treatments, e.g. for uterocervix and liver, existing scanners have insufficient field of view and cannot easily be positioned to avoid disturbing the beam or target, treatment.

The successful FUSE PhD student will first review ultrasound patch development specifically for USGRT then select appropriate solutions for the ultrasound device and system. Elements including the ultrasound technology, patch attachment, data transmission and information provision will be investigated in hardware and software and a demonstration system will be assembled for future translation into clinical practice. This project will involve partnership between the Institute of Cancer Research and the FUSE CDT with ICR involved in device / system specification and final demonstration.