Optimization in Radiofrequency Ablation

Radiofrequenzablation
© Fraunhofer MEVIS
Radiofrequency Ablation

In cases when the state of health of the patient or the complicated location of the tumor does not permit surgery, tumor ablation is a minimally invasive therapy alternative. By placing a thin, needle-shaped applicator through the skin inside the tumor, the cancerous cells can be destroyed by locally heating or freezing the volume around the applicator.

It is highly important to completely destroy the tumour in RFA because surviving cells may develop resistance towards heat and promote more aggressive tumour growth. In order to provide more assurance for doctors, the Medical Therapy Planning (MTP) group and colleagues at the Fraunhofer Institute for Medical Image Computing MEVIS develop an imaging-based planning system for patient-individual planning of RFA therapy.

The software

  • allows to consider important clinical aspects of the therapy (such as the complete ablation of the tumour or the heat distribution in
    neighbouring organs) systematically,
  • calculates optimal applicator positions considering critical anatomical structures which obstruct access to the tumour (e.g. the ribs),
  • allows the classical forward planning of the therapy where the applicator can be positioned freely and the quality of the resulting
    therapy is automatically measured according to various clinical aspects and displayed,
  • allows inverse therapy planning where clinical aims can be formulated and adjusted iteratively in an intuitive way and the system calculates the applicator position to best reach the so specified goals.

 

Project partners

Fraunhofer MEVIS