SBIR Phase I: Radiolucent Ultrasound Device for Real-Time Volumetric Guidance of Radiation Therapy

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project seeks to develop a novel ultrasound device for improving the precision of radiation therapy delivery for cancer treatment. In external beam radiation therapy (EBRT), highly potent radiation doses with minimal treatment margins must be precisely delivered to maximize chances of local tumor control and minimize toxicity of surrounding healthy tissue. Such delivery is predicated on systems that can accurately track and correct for real-time anatomy motion during radiation treatment. The proposed device is an integral part of a larger system for guiding radiation beams using real-time ultrasound image information. The project team will fabricate the proposed device and assess its feasibility by evaluating ultrasound performance metrics in phantoms, severity of artifacts in CT images, imaging performance during direct radiation exposure, and ability to account for device density in the beam planning process. If successful, the proposed research will result in a new low-cost imaging device that provides unprecedented real-time soft-tissue EBRT guidance at 2.5 mm accuracy without imposing any restrictions on existing planning and delivery practices. The boarder impact/commercial potential of this project is to achieve the ?holy grail? of EBRT: real-time imaging and tumor motion management during beam delivery without fiducial markers. EBRT is used to treat over half of all cancer patients worldwide. The current ?gold standard? solution for EBRT guidance relies on tracking of implanted fiducial markers using x-ray images, but limitations including marker migration, additional ionizing radiation exposure, and implantation morbidity severely limit its utility. In terms of clinical benefit, the guidance approach in this proposal has significant potential to reduce healthy tissue toxicity and increase local tumor control rates while eliminating marker implantation and extra ionizing radiation exposure. Imaging technology developed in this SBIR can also apply to ultra-low cost, portable 4D imaging for field diagnosis, multi-modality diagnostic imaging, and guidance for other medical interventions outside radiation therapy.