Wir überwinden Grenzen

A team from the Medical Center - University of Freiburg and Siemens Healthineers is researching a new imaging method for more precise treatment of liver cancer / 3.3 million euros in funding from the BMBF

The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is providing more than 3.3 million euros in funding over three years for a joint project between the Medical Center - University of Freiburg and Siemens Healthineers. In the project, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which is currently mainly used in diagnostics, is being adapted for the special requirements of interventional radiology and for combination with X-ray imaging. Researchers are working on a new type of procedure that will make minimally invasive radiological treatment of tumors and metastases in the liver more precise and gentle. Liver involvement is often so advanced that surgical removal is no longer possible and image-guided, local treatment methods such as heating, freezing or local catheter-controlled application of medication are used instead. In order to be able to carry out these procedures even more precisely, the new multimodal imaging procedure uses MRI to visualize different forms of soft tissue, making it possible to differentiate between tumour tissue and healthy tissue during the procedure. The X-ray images, on the other hand, can show hard structures such as medical instruments in high resolution and thus enable fine guidance of these instruments to the site of therapy. The project was officially launched recently with a joint meeting of the project teams at Siemens Healthineers in Forchheim.

"With the combination of X-ray and MRI, we want to enable high-precision interventions, initially for liver cancer. In the future, this combined imaging could be advantageously used for medical interventions in other regions of the body where medical instruments need to be guided into soft tissue under image control," says Prof. Dr.M axim Zaitsev, Research Group Leader in Medical Physics at the Department of Radiology at the Medical Center - University of Freiburg,who developed the project together with Dr. Maximilian Russe, Senior Physician at the Department of Radiology at the Medical Center - University of Freiburg, and Prof. Dr. Rebecca Fahrig,Head of Innovation Advanced Therapies at Siemens Healthineers.

By the end of the project, a functional technology demonstrator is to be produced that allows interventional MR tomography and is prepared for subsequent combination with X-ray imaging.

The project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), action field "Health Economy in the Health Research Framework Program", funding reference 13GW0356B.

Caption: This is how the combined MRI-X-ray device could look one day, with which soft tissue and medical devices can be imaged simultaneously. © Siemens Healthineers

Contact:
Prof. Dr. Maxim Zaitsev
Department of Radiology
Department of Medicine Physics
Medical Center - University of Freiburg
Phone:. +49 761 270-74120
maxim.zaitsev@uniklinik-freiburg.de