A team is developing a ‘bionic eye’ using highly advanced imaging technology to distinguish between healthy and diseased brain tissue.
Researchers hope this innovative solution will offer higher levels of precision to neurosurgeons in removing tumour tissue and, at the same time, protect healthy brain tissue.
AI technology currently being developed by the Brain Tumour Research Centre of Excellence at Imperial College London in collaboration with the team at the Hamlyn Centre, one of the Institute of Global Health Innovation’s research centres at Imperial College London, could transform neurosurgery.
The surgeons face a significant challenge in removing glioma because these tumours are diffuse – the cancer infiltrates healthy brain tissue and has no visible boundary.
The new technology will rely on a comprehensive database of images, and work to build this is already underway. The next step will be to train an algorithm to distinguish between tumours and healthy brain tissue and identify highly functional brain areas.
These will go on to guide the development of a ‘bionic eye’ device to be installed in the surgical microscope for use during surgery to enable neurosurgeons to differentiate diseased tissue and healthy tissue.
The final stage of this research is to develop a revolutionary piece of equipment that fits inside a microscope to enable tumour-brain differentiation to happen in real-time during surgery, providing neurosurgeons with a much clearer picture of what is safe to remove whilst ensuring maximal resection.
This new technology could become a neurosurgical standard of practice as a tool to refine the extent of resection of brain tumours, identify highly functional brain areas, and consequently reduce the possibility of post-operative disability and stroke.
The research team at Imperial have worked with 47 brain tumour patients in a clinical research study capturing the images required for the deep learning algorithm.
The data analysis will take a few additional months. This process will guide the hardware and software development for the next phase.
This phase will be a much larger study with hundreds of patients to validate the technology further, use it with different surgeons and tumours, and test the possibility of scaling it to a broader level.
Dr Giulio Anichini, a Brain Tumour Research funded clinical research fellow, said: ‘This is an exciting development for glioma and GBM patients, and potentially to be used in other areas of neurosurgery.
‘It allows us to be much more precise in removing diseased tissue versus healthy tissue. It also means we can determine areas of the brain which are crucial to vital functions, such as speech and mobility, and those where we’d be more proactive in removing tissue around the tumour without causing lasting damage.’
Dr Karen Noble, Director of Research, Policy and Innovation at Brain Tumour Research, said: ‘This exciting project is at the cutting edge of surgical research, and we congratulate the team at Imperial on their progress so far.
‘Not only will this innovative technology allow surgeons to be more precise in removing diseased tissue versus healthy tissue, but it also means they can identify and avoid areas of the brain which are crucial to vital functions such as speech and mobility, and be more proactive in removing tissue around the tumour without causing permanent damage.
‘We look forward to being able to share further updates with our community as the work progresses.’
Photo Caption - Brain Tumour Research Centre of Excellence at Imperial College, London
