EU IMPACT - Image-based Multi-scale Physiological Planning for Ablation Cancer Treatment

IMPPACT will develop an intervention planning and monitoring application for Radiofrequency Ablation (RFA) of malignant liver tumours. RFA is a minimally invasive form to treat cancer without open surgery, by placing a needle inside the malignancy and destroying it through intensive heating. Though the advantages of this approach are obvious, the intervention is currently hard to plan, almost impossible to monitor or assess, and therefore is not the first choice for treatment. IMPPACT will develop a physiological model of the liver and simulate the interventions result, accounting for patient specific physiological factors. Gaps in the understanding of particular aspects of the RFA treatment will be closed by multi-scale studies on cells and animals. New findings will be evaluated microscopically and transformed into macroscopic equations. The long-established bio-heat equation will be extended to incorporate multiple scales. Validation will be performed at multiple levels. Images from ongoing patient treatment will be used to cross check validity for human physiology. Final validation will be performed at macroscopic level through visual comparison of simulation and treatment results gathered in animal studies and during patient treatment. This extensive validation together with a user-centred software design approach will guarantee suitability of the solution for clinical practice. The consortium consists of two Hospitals, three Universities, one Research Institute and one Research Institute and one industrial SME. The final project deliverables will be the patient specific intervention planning system and an augmented reality training simulator for the RFA intervention.