Geometric Biopsy Plan Optimization

Unmet Need
An estimated 233,00 new cases of prostate cancer were diagnosed in the US alone.  Studies have shown it is necessary to treat many men to prevent one death from prostate cancer.  However, the current method of biopsy often misses relevant tumors.  Accordingly, there is a need for more specific prostate screening test and more reliable prostate diagnosis at biopsy.

Technology Overiew
Johns Hopkins faculty member, Dr. Dan Stoianovici, has developed a method for optimizing a biopsy plan to improve cancer diagnosis.  In particular, a capsule (cylinder with hemispherical ends) shaped volume that is coaxial and centered on the biopsy core is modeled to represent the volume that a biopsy core may sample. A tumor is considered detected if its center is within this capsule, assuming that tumors are spherical. For a single core biopsy, sampled volume is defined as the volume of the intersection between the respective capsule and the prostate. The probability of detecting a significant tumor, determined by its size, with this single core is the ratio of sampled volume to total prostate volume. For multiple core biopsy, the probability of detecting a significant tumor is defined as the ratio of the combined, non-overlapping volume of individual sampled volumes to total prostate volume. An optimization method is used to generate the 3D biopsy plan that maximizes the probability of tumor detection for predefined biopsy core numbers and length. From the method, the risk of detecting insignificant tumors, also determined by size, and the probability of a false negative result is also automatically calculated.

Stage of Development
Dr. Stoianovici has preclinical stage data via computer simulation of an optimized biopsy of the male human anatomy with the Visible Human Project.  The results show that biopsy may be almost 40% by using the optimized planning and precise biopsy methods.

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