Bronchial GPS for early detection of lung cancer

DESCRIPTION:

Developing the bronchoscope of tomorrow

Lung cancer is one of the most diagnosed cancers among men and women. Actually, lung cancer accounts for 13% of the total cases with a 5-year global survival rate in patients. Although early detection increases survival rate from 38% to 67%, accurate diagnosis remains a challenge. To tackle this situation, researchers from the CVC in collaboration with researchers from the Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute and the Hospital of Bellvitge have created the bronchoscope of the future combining computer vision and videogame technology. Incorporating cutting edge technology to regular bronchoscopes, they have given doctors a tool for improved and more precise diagnosis; and patients a quicker, easier medical intervention.

Virtual Bronchoscopy (VB) is a non-invasive exploration tool for intervention planning and navigation of possible pulmonary lesions (PLs). A VB software involves the location of a PL and the calculation of a route, starting from the trachea, to reach it. BronchoX (Bronchoscopy EXploration) is a VB software to plan biopsy interventions that generate physician-readable instructions to reach the pulmonary lesions. This solution is open-source, multiplatform and extensible for future functionalities, designed by our multidisciplinary research and development group.

BronchoX contains two main modules, the Planner module and the Intervention Module. The planner allows clinicians to browse the CT data, obtain a 3D reconstruction of the airway tree and plan the best path to reach the lesion. The planner provides different visualization tools that simulates a virtual navegation trough the respiratory tract. Finally, the Intervention module use the planner data to provide simple and clear instructions during operation time.

Funding:

Fundació La Marató de TV3, TIN2012-33116, 2014PROD00065, DPI2015-65286-R. The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 712949 (TECNIOspring PLUS) and from the Agency for Business Competitiveness of the Government of Catalonia.