This Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.398 - Cancer Research Manpower) provides $275,092 to the University of Wisconsin-Madison to develop an accurate and robust targeting technique to enable transcostal histotripsy treatment of liver tumors. The goal is to improve histotripsy treatments of liver tumors by developing a clinically translatable workflow for targeting liver tumors through the ribs. The project includes quantifying the effect of intervening ribs on...
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) awarded a $164,639 Project Grant (CFDA 93.394 - Cancer Detection and Diagnosis Research) to Brown University to develop a novel pipeline for kidney segmentation and registration based on deep learning techniques. The goal is to improve treatment efficacy and reduce recurrence rates for image-guided thermal ablation (IGTA), a minimally invasive cancer treatment. Specifically, the research will focus on detecting and mitigating potentially undetected...
This $124,999 Project Grant awarded by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB, CFDA 93.286 "Discovery and Applied Research for Technological Innovations to Improve Human Health") supports research to enable high-resolution ultrasound tomography (UST) imaging for improved breast cancer screening. The key objectives are to: (1) mitigate cycle skipping effects that limit the use of high-frequency signals in UST, (2) design and build a UST imaging...
This $684,107 federal Project Grant award from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), under CFDA program 93.847 Diabetes, Digestive, and Kidney Diseases Extramural Research, supports research to determine the optimal settings for the Thulium Fiber Laser (TFL) in laser lithotripsy and assess associated thermal injury risk. The key objectives are to: 1) determine the optimal TFL settings through in-vitro studies, 2) elucidate the mechanisms of action of the...
This federal Project Grant award from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), under the "Discovery and Applied Research for Technological Innovations to Improve Human Health" program (CFDA 93.286), provides $249,000 to Case Western Reserve University to develop an ultrafast photoacoustic histology platform for real-time intraoperative diagnosis. The project aims to create a structured illumination ultraviolet photoacoustic microscopy system capable of...
This federal Project Grant award for $599,191, provided by the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.394 Cancer Detection and Diagnosis Research program), supports the development and validation of a 3D dynamic contrast-enhanced ultrasound (3D DCE-US) framework to characterize tumor vascular properties for liver malignancies. The goal is to introduce computational approaches that leverage the interconnected nature of voxels in 3D DCE-US imaging to capture new information beyond conventional...
This $396,061 Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.395 - Cancer Treatment Research) supports research to assess the efficacy of a novel class of hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) inhibitors as a potential treatment for renal cell carcinoma (RCC). The principal investigator has developed boron-based HIF inhibitors derived from the natural compound honokiol, which have demonstrated promising anti-angiogenic properties in vitro. This 2-year project aims to (1) determine...
This $399,358 Project Grant awarded by the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.394 - Cancer Detection and Diagnosis Research) to Cordance Medical Inc. aims to optimize a non-invasive focused ultrasound system, called the "NeuroAccess System," to enable liquid biopsies for brain tumor patients. The key objectives are to demonstrate the safety of repeatedly opening the blood-brain barrier, optimize the opening volume and technique in a rat glioma model, and confirm the system's ability to...
This $445,927 Project Grant, awarded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) under the Diabetes, Digestive, and Kidney Diseases Extramural Research program (CFDA 93.847), aims to develop a novel tool called BACTVUE to enable targeted ablation of infected bladder tissue in patients with antibiotic-refractory urinary tract infections (UTIs). The proposal outlines two primary objectives: 1) Demonstrating BACTVUE's ability to selectively stain diverse...
The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) awarded a $294,641 Project Grant under the Discovery and Applied Research for Technological Innovations to Improve Human Health program (CFDA 93.286) to Sonovance, Inc., a Maryland small business. The grant supports the development of a low-cost ultrasound imaging system that allows operators with no prior training to acquire diagnostic-quality ultrasound images. The system uses a geometric model, position sensor, and...
IMAGING FEEDBACK FOR HISTOTRIPSY RENAL TUMOR ABLATION - PROJECT SUMMARY: RENAL CELL CARCINOMA (RCC) IS THE SIXTH MOST COMMON CANCER IN THE UNITED STATES, WITH ~ 82K NEW DIAGNOSES ESTIMATED FOR 2023. SURGERY IS THE PREFERRED OPTION FOR INITIAL MANAGEMENT OF RCC, BUT THE NUMBER OF PATIENTS WHO QUALIFY IS REDUCED EACH YEAR DUE TO THE AGING, COMORBID POPULATION. HISTOTRIPSY IS A NONINVASIVE, FOCUSED ULTRASOUND THERAPY USED FOR TISSUE ABLATION VIA BUBBLE ACTIVITY, AND IS AN ATTRACTIVE ALTERNATIVE TO SURGERY. INDEED, A PILOT CLINICAL TRIAL TO TEST HISTOTRIPSY FOR THE TREATMENT OF RCC IS SCHEDULED FOR 2023. STANDARD B-MODE ULTRASOUND IMAGING IS USED TO MONITOR HISTOTRIPSY VIA THE DETECTION OF HYPERINTENSE BUBBLE PIXELS. IN THE KIDNEY, HISTOTRIPSY BUBBLES ARE OBSCURED ON B-MODE DUE TO ARTIFACTS, IMAGE DEGRADATION AT DEPTH, AND A LACK OF CONTRAST SPECIFICITY. PATIENTS WILL BE DISQUALIFIED FROM RECEIVING TREATMENT WITH HISTOTRIPSY WHEN BUBBLES CANNOT BE LOCATED AND MONITORED WITH IMAGING. FURTHER, B-MODE BUBBLE IMAGING DOES NOT PROVIDE THE INFORMATION NECESSARY TO ASSESS THE LIKELIHOOD OF SUCCESSFUL ONCOLOGICAL OUTCOMES. REAL-TIME FEEDBACK TO ADJUST THE HISTOTRIPSY EXPOSURE AND ENSURE ABLATION IS OF PARTICULAR IMPORTANCE FOR HETEROGENOUS TUMORS COMMON TO RCC. HENCE, THERE IS A NEED FOR IMPROVED HISTOTRIPSY BUBBLE DETECTION TO ENABLE THERAPY AUTOMATION. TO ADDRESS THIS GAP, WE HAVE DEVELOPED ULTRAFAST, BUBBLE-SPECIFIC ULTRASOUND IMAGING FOR MONITORING HISTOTRIPSY. USING THIS IMAGING SEQUENCE, WE CAN ASSESS THE DIFFUSIVE PROPERTIES OF HISTOTRIPSY BUBBLES, A KEY MARKER OF ABLATION OUTCOMES, WITH SUB-MILLISECOND RESOLUTION. THE SCIENTIFIC PREMISE OF THIS STUDY IS THAT ULTRAFAST IMAGING WILL ELEVATE HISTOTRIPSY BUBBLE MONITORING, AND PROVIDE FEEDBACK TO ENSURE EFFECTIVE AND SAFE RCC ABLATION. WE HAVE DEMONSTRATED STRONG TRANSLATIONAL POTENTIAL TO MONITOR HISTOTRIPSY WITH ULTRAFAST IMAGING IN VITRO, EX VIVO, AND IN MURINE RENAL TUMORS ON A PRE-CLINICAL SYSTEM. OUR OBJECTIVE IS TO REFINE AND INTEGRATE THIS SEQUENCE ONTO A CLINICAL-GRADE IMAGER, DEVELOP AND TEST FEEDBACK ALGORITHMS IN RCC TISSUES AND A RELEVANT LARGE ANIMAL MODEL, AND RAPIDLY TRANSLATE THIS IMAGING PROTOCOL INTO USE IN PATIENTS. TO TEST OUR SCIENTIFIC PREMISE, WE WILL INVESTIGATE THE FOLLOWING AIMS: WE WILL DEVELOP A TRANSLATIONAL HISTOTRIPSY SYSTEM FOR RCC IN SPECIFIC AIM 1. WE WILL INTEGRATE OUR ULTRAFAST SEQUENCE ONTO A CLINICAL-GRADE IMAGING PLATFORM, AND EVALUATE ITS SENSITIVITY AND ACCURACY FOR BUBBLE DETECTION. IN SPECIFIC AIM 2, METHODS TO MONITOR AND MODULATE THE BUBBLE CLOUD LIFETIME WILL BE DEVELOPED. THESE METHODS WILL BE USED TO ADJUST THE HISTOTRIPSY PULSING RATE TO ENHANCE THE EFFICACY OF HISTOTRIPSY ABLATION. SPECIFIC AIM 3 WILL USE INFORMATION ON THE BUBBLE CLOUD DISSOLUTION RATE TO PROVIDE REAL-TIME FEEDBACK OF TREATMENT OUTCOMES USING AN IN VIVO PORCINE KIDNEY ABLATION MODEL. THE RATE OF UROLOGICAL SEQUELAE WILL BE DETERMINED IN SHORT-TERM SURVIVAL STUDIES. THIS STUDY WILL DELIVER VALIDATED ULTRAFAST SEQUENCES ON A COMMERCIAL HISTOTRIPSY IMAGING SYSTEM TO IMPROVE RCC ABLATION AND ENSURE SAFETY. FOLLOWING THESE VALIDATION STEPS, THE SEQUENCE WILL BE TRANSLATED IMMEDIATELY IN A CLINICAL TRIAL FOR HISTOTRIPSY RCC.