AI and Robotics for Prostate Biopsy

Introduction

The ROBIOPSY project aims at evolving the robotic device for prostate cancer (PC) biopsy demonstrated during the ERC-PoC PROST into a product prototype that will be ready for clinical trials.

Project Focus

The focus of the project will be two-fold:

1. The engineerization of the PROST prototype.
2. The accurate analysis of the business case of prostate cancer diagnosis and its potential extension to focal therapy.

Objectives

We will correct the shortcomings of the pre-clinical tests, meet the strict medical certification regulations, and address the Health Economics implications of our solution. ROBIOPSY will achieve better performance than current competitors because it solves the two main causes of PC diagnostic error:

• Uncertain target identification.
• Inaccurate needle positioning, as demonstrated in the pre-clinical tests.

Methodology

A novel image fusion method will permit to significantly reduce the target uncertainty, while the robotic device will eliminate the positioning error.

Prototype Design

The ROBIOPSY prototype will consist of a single cart holding the robotic needle positioner and housing all the electronic components. The electronics will be divided into two subsystems:

1. Interface and data processing.
2. Safety critical controls.

This will reduce the operational risks and simplify the medical certification.

Ongoing Studies

A multi-centric study is ongoing to collect biopsy images to train the Machine Learning algorithms for prostate segmentation and lesion identification.

Business Analysis

In parallel to the technical development, we will analyze in depth the business case of prostate biopsy in selected European countries. We will analyze the time/cost reduction due to the new device and establish the economic foundation of focal therapy, to be ready for the expected evolution of PC treatments.