Potential for Tissue Movement Compensation in Conformai, Cancer Therapy

Abstract

In conformai approaches to minimally invasive cancer therapy, such as focused ultrasound surgery^1,2, body movement during the surgical procedure may limit the precision and speed with which a tumour volume may be treated. This is particular relevant to the treatment of tumours such as liver métastases since the liver may move substantially with respiration and cardiovascular pulsation. We report on a preliminary investigation of the potential and limitations of ultrasonic speckle decorrelation and speckle tracking for achieving on-line compensation for body movement associated with the respiratory and cardiac cycles. Figure 1 illustrates the concept that we have in mind for eventually employing data from an ultrasound echo imaging system to allow the focus of the high intensity treatment beam to automatically track a moving tissue target.