Hand-Held Probe for MR Image-Guided Biopsy and Treatment of Prostate Cancer

摘要

A hand-held probe for the biopsy and treatment of prostate cancer was developed in a 30 month program. The probe was designed to acquire Magnetic Resonance Images and incorporates MR tracking coils for real-time localization during biopsy. Seven tasks were proposed for the execution of this project, but Task 3 was eliminated in the final contract negotiations. All other tasks have been completed. In the first task, changes were made to the MR tracking software, making it more suitable for dynamic prostate imaging. In the second task, 'mock-ups' of several probes were made and evaluated in a cadaver model. The most promising design was then used to create a working prototype probe that includes MR tracking coils, an MR imaging coil and a biopsy channel. The performance of this probe was compared to commercially available MR prostate imaging coils, and found to give a greater depth-of-penetration and twice the signal-to-noise ratio of the commercially available probe. This was validated in human volunteers in the fourth task. Final probes were built in the fifth task and biopsy functionality validated in dog models in the sixth task. Task seven of the original work statement is the writing of this report.