Terabotics - terahertz robotics for surgery and medicine
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Warwick
Department Name: Physics
Abstract
There is a pressing need to improve the precision, control and selectivity of surgical procedures addressing several high-incidence cancers. For example in the UK, the incidence of basal cell carcinoma (BCC) has increased by approximately 250% since the 1990s, with 137,000 new cases of BCC each year. Bowel cancer is the 4th most common cancer and is the second most common cause of cancer death. Some 15% of new bowel cancer cases are early stage and amenable to potential endoluminal surgery; this proportion is increasing with national screening programs. Delayed diagnosis and incomplete excision of tumours are key drivers of patient morbidity, and squander limited surgical resources. Streamlining screening and early diagnosis processes is now even more important with more patient backlog caused by Covid-19. The default surgical practice is to remove cancers wherever possible, along with a margin of healthy tissue. Leaving cancer cells behind leads to reoccurrence, but removing too much healthy tissue increases both the risk of complications and the loss of normal function. Trying to optimise this balance is a global challenge. For example, BCCs often spread out beneath the surface of the skin such that their entirety cannot be detected until surgery. Moh's micrographic surgery is the gold standard for treating BCCs: the tumour is removed section by section and examined under the microscope until no further tumour can be seen. This is both time consuming and traumatic for the patient, typically resulting in larger skin grafts than expected. If the extent of the tumour could be accurately determined, using terahertz (THz) imaging prior to surgery, the procedure would be faster, and grafts better planned. Similarly, if a diagnostic THz imaging capability could be added to a flexible endoscope, more colorectal tumours could be identified in situ and resected without waiting for histology results (typically 2 weeks) and a follow-up procedure.
In this programme, a highly interdisciplinary team consisting of investigators at Universities of Warwick, Exeter and Leeds in Physics, Engineering and Medicine, and at the University Hospital of Coventry and Warwickshire and the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, join forces to optimise patient diagnosis and treatment. The team is supported by industry partners including TeraView Ltd, Intuitive Surgical, Kuka (world leader of industrial robots), QinetiQ, the National Physical Laboratory and Lubrizol (an international cosmetics company).
THz light is non-ionising, uses low power levels such that thermal effects are insignificant and is consequently safe for in vivo imaging of humans. It is very sensitive to intermolecular interactions such as hydrogen bonds, and probes processes that occur on picosecond timescales. Owing to the high sensitivity of THz light to tissue hydration and composition, THz spectroscopic imaging can help locate and diagnose lesions that cannot be seen by other imaging modalities. In Terabotics, we will integrate THz technology into robotic probes to develop improved platforms for cancer detection and surgical removal. We will develop probes that can be used on the skin as well as in the abdominal cavity and, by miniaturising the technology, we will also develop a new flexible probe for robotic colonoscopy. In this way the project will lead to more efficient cancer diagnosis and surgery, saving surgeons' operating time and reducing the number of surgeries needed. This is because accurately determining the extent of cancers prior to surgery will enable better surgical planning and reduce the need for a second surgery. Being able to diagnose cancers in situ will also give a faster diagnosis to treatment time. These factors will reduce trauma, costs, patient backlog and waiting lists, and improve patient outcomes.
In short, our breakthrough in developing in situ diagnosis will bring step changes in the detection and treatment of cancer for many years to come.
In this programme, a highly interdisciplinary team consisting of investigators at Universities of Warwick, Exeter and Leeds in Physics, Engineering and Medicine, and at the University Hospital of Coventry and Warwickshire and the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, join forces to optimise patient diagnosis and treatment. The team is supported by industry partners including TeraView Ltd, Intuitive Surgical, Kuka (world leader of industrial robots), QinetiQ, the National Physical Laboratory and Lubrizol (an international cosmetics company).
THz light is non-ionising, uses low power levels such that thermal effects are insignificant and is consequently safe for in vivo imaging of humans. It is very sensitive to intermolecular interactions such as hydrogen bonds, and probes processes that occur on picosecond timescales. Owing to the high sensitivity of THz light to tissue hydration and composition, THz spectroscopic imaging can help locate and diagnose lesions that cannot be seen by other imaging modalities. In Terabotics, we will integrate THz technology into robotic probes to develop improved platforms for cancer detection and surgical removal. We will develop probes that can be used on the skin as well as in the abdominal cavity and, by miniaturising the technology, we will also develop a new flexible probe for robotic colonoscopy. In this way the project will lead to more efficient cancer diagnosis and surgery, saving surgeons' operating time and reducing the number of surgeries needed. This is because accurately determining the extent of cancers prior to surgery will enable better surgical planning and reduce the need for a second surgery. Being able to diagnose cancers in situ will also give a faster diagnosis to treatment time. These factors will reduce trauma, costs, patient backlog and waiting lists, and improve patient outcomes.
In short, our breakthrough in developing in situ diagnosis will bring step changes in the detection and treatment of cancer for many years to come.
Organisations
- University of Warwick (Lead Research Organisation)
- UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF EXETER (Collaboration)
- Queen Mary University of London (Project Partner)
- Lipotec (Spain) (Project Partner)
- KUKA (Germany) (Project Partner)
- TeraView (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- Qinetiq (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- NIHR surgical medtech co-operative (Project Partner)
- National Physical Laboratory (Project Partner)
- Intuitive Surgical (United States) (Project Partner)
Publications
Barducci L
(2022)
Active Stabilization of Interventional Tasks Utilizing a Magnetically Manipulated Endoscope.
in Frontiers in robotics and AI
Barker X
(2023)
Monitoring the Terahertz Response of Skin Beneath Transdermal Drug Delivery Patches Using Sparse Deconvolution
in IEEE Transactions on Terahertz Science and Technology
Bench C
(2022)
Unsupervised segmentation of biomedical hyperspectral image data: tackling high dimensionality with convolutional autoencoders.
in Biomedical optics express
Butler-Caddle E
(2023)
Terahertz photoconductance dynamics of semiconductors from sub-nanosecond to millisecond timescales
in Applied Physics Letters
Chen X
(2022)
An introduction to terahertz time-domain spectroscopic ellipsometry
in APL Photonics
Chopra N
(2023)
Optimum Optical Designs for Diffraction-Limited Terahertz Spectroscopy and Imaging Systems Using Off-Axis Parabolic Mirrors
in Journal of Infrared, Millimeter, and Terahertz Waves
Chopra N
(2023)
Active THz beam shaping using a one-dimensional array of photoconductive emitters
in Applied Physics Letters
Description | The main finding so far is the ability to extract hydration and thickness values of the skin from the THz measurements of skin - this is detailed in Advanced Photonics Nexus paper (Feb 2024). |
Exploitation Route | Useful for skin characterisation. |
Sectors | Healthcare |
Description | Our THz study of skin cancer patients at UHCW attracted attention from Sky News international (Oct 2022) and has made impact there. |
First Year Of Impact | 2022 |
Sector | Healthcare |
Description | Development of a colon mapping algorithm for intelligent colonoscopy |
Amount | £50,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | Innovate UK |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 11/2022 |
End | 04/2023 |
Description | Introducing a new generation of robotic single-use colonoscopes |
Amount | £500,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | Innovate UK |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 01/2023 |
End | 06/2024 |
Description | Revolutionising colonoscopy - New Product Introduction of a painless magnetic endoscope |
Amount | £1,745,932 (GBP) |
Funding ID | 10053423 |
Organisation | Innovate UK |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 04/2023 |
End | 04/2026 |
Description | THz skinometer applications and IP protection, EPSRC IAA scheme |
Amount | £50,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | University of Warwick |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 01/2023 |
End | 11/2023 |
Title | Dataset associated with "Design of a Split Ring Resonator Integrated with On-Chip Terahertz Waveguides for Colon Cancer Detection" |
Description | The results on 'Design of a Split Ring Resonator Integrated with On-Chip Terahertz Waveguides for Colon Cancer Detection' |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2022 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
URL | https://archive.researchdata.leeds.ac.uk/978/ |
Title | Dataset associated with "Enhanced Terahertz Spectral-Fingerprint Detection of a-Lactose Using Sub-Micron-Gap On-Chip Waveguides" |
Description | The results on 'Enhanced Terahertz Spectral-Fingerprint Detection of a-Lactose Using Sub-Micron-Gap On-Chip Waveguides'. |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2021 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
URL | https://archive.researchdata.leeds.ac.uk/903/ |
Title | Monitoring the Effect of Transdermal Drug Delivery Patches on the Skin using Terahertz Sensing |
Description | THz measurements of the skin of 5 subjects before and after the application of partially and fully occlusive patches for transdermal drug delivery. The patches were applied for 24 hours, the skin regions were then measured immediately after patch removal and 30 minutes and 4hours after the patches were removed. In addition to changing the backing material of the patch we also varied the propylene glycol content of the patch to observe the effects on the skin.Regions on the left arm were treated with the partially occlusive patches while the right arm was treated with fully occlusive patches. Regions are numbered 1-4 where 1=3% propylene glycol, 2= control, 3= 6% propylene glycol, 4=0% propylene glycol.The txt files are structured so the top two rows are the voltages measured by the pressure sensors at each time point. The first column is the time in ps and the following columns are the measured THz pulses for each of the 240 measurements, acquired every 0.25 seconds. |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2021 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | This is a duplicate entry but I can see how to remove it, sorry. |
URL | https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/Monitoring_the_Effect_of_Transdermal_Drug_Delivery_Patches_on_... |
Title | Separation of heating and magnetoelastic coupling effects in surface-acoustic-wave-enhanced creep of magnetic domain walls |
Description | |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2023 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
URL | https://archive.researchdata.leeds.ac.uk/1129/ |
Description | Post-doc visits between institutions |
Organisation | University of Exeter |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | My postdocs have visited postdocs at Exeter and Leeds university. They have also hosted visits of postdocs from these universities. |
Collaborator Contribution | Postdocs from Exeter and Leeds have visited us at Warwick to take specific measurements and test ideas. They have also hosted Warwick based postdocs on reciprocal visits. |
Impact | Still pending, but publications will arise from the visits |
Start Year | 2022 |
Description | Post-doc visits between institutions |
Organisation | University of Leeds |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | My postdocs have visited postdocs at Exeter and Leeds university. They have also hosted visits of postdocs from these universities. |
Collaborator Contribution | Postdocs from Exeter and Leeds have visited us at Warwick to take specific measurements and test ideas. They have also hosted Warwick based postdocs on reciprocal visits. |
Impact | Still pending, but publications will arise from the visits |
Start Year | 2022 |
Description | Seminars at Warwick University and UHCW |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | I have given seminars locally at the following meetings: 1. medical Physics/UHCW seminar 2. UHCW Institute of Applied and Translational Technologies in Surgery (ITASS) opening meeting 3. UoW/UHCW collaboration meeting |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | featured on international TV (Sky news) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
Results and Impact | International News Articles ? October 2022: Sky news report and video on Skinometer can detect cancer that's invisible to the human eye . National news and local news follow ups ? The Sky news story on the skinometer appeared online in Yahoo! UK and Coast FM, and the news story aired on Hallam FM, Greatest Hits West Yorkshire, Gem 106, Free Radio Birmingham, Lincolnshire FM, TFM Teeside, LBC News, BBC West Midlands, Central FM, City Talk and Metro Radio 2, amongst others. This publicity has really been far-reaching. Even the parents of my daughter's friends have told me they have heard about it on the radio/seen it on TV! I have been contacted by several members of the public wanting to volunteer as well as other reserachers. Since this publicity, more University colleagues are aware of the impact I am making and I have been invited to participate in several new research projects. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://vimeo.com/757511937/c9a3e8cbd7 |