Associate Professor Kenneth Tichauer and Professor Jovan Brankov at Illinois Institute of Technology have secured $2.5 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The grant will support their development of an imaging system designed to assist head and neck cancer surgery teams at University Medical Center Groningen, led by Dr. Max Witjes.
The system aims to provide real-time feedback during surgery, potentially reducing the need for repeat operations. "We’re giving the surgeon the answer right then and there while the patient is still on the surgical table, offering great promise for reducing the need for repeat surgeries and enhancing treatment outcomes," Tichauer explains.
A prototype was previously tested on six patients, yielding positive results that helped secure NIH funding. The team plans to redesign the imaging system for a larger clinical study involving 80 patients. Improvements are being made based on insights from initial tests, with contributions from Ph.D. students Simon Parschat and Mahsa Imani, as well as Research Associate Wei Zhou.
Tichauer highlights advancements in camera technology: "An improvement in the camera is really going to change our ability to get high quality images, and then we’re going to push that to the absolute limit."
Participants in the clinical study will undergo traditional biopsy evaluations alongside new imaging techniques, ensuring thorough assessment of surgical outcomes. Additionally, machine-learning algorithms are being developed for automated detection of incomplete surgical margins.
Brankov comments on this technological integration: "These days machine learning and AI methods are a big boom, especially in medical imaging. It’s like a gold rush." He emphasizes Illinois Tech's leadership in this field since the 1990s.
Though initially focused on head and neck cancer, Tichauer envisions expanding this approach to other cancer surgeries. A related project is already underway evaluating tumor-draining lymph nodes during surgery.
The research receives NIH support under Award Number 1R01DE033449-01. The authors note that views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of NIH.
Kenneth Tichauer’s work titled “Ex Vivo Intraoperative Surgical Basal Margin Analysis in Head and Neck Cancer Resection: Clinical Validation” underscores these efforts supported by NIH Award Number 1R01DE033449-01.