1 PhD Research position in Contrast-ultrasound prostate cancer detection in Netherlands | Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e)

Contact: Dr.ir. Massimo Mischi and Dr.ir. Nenad Mihajlovich

External Partners: Philips Research, Jeroen Bosch Ziekenhuis

Academic environment:

Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) is one of Europe's top technological universities, situated in the heart of one of Europe's largest high-tech innovation ecosystems. Research at TU/e is characterized by a combination of academic excellence and a strong real-world impact. This impact is often obtained via close collaboration with high-tech industries and key clinical centers.

In the Healthcare field, TU/e has recently started a large-scale collaborative research program with Philips and leading clinical partners, aimed at improving the quality of care while lowering costs. The program focuses in part on ultrasound monitoring and guidance, with the Jeroen Bosch Ziekenhuis serving as the clinical partner. For this focus area a multidisciplinary team of 9 PhD students is to be appointed, supervised by a multidisciplinary team of clinical, industrial and academic experts. To facilitate intensive multidisciplinary collaboration, students will be embedded for a part of their time at Philips Research.

Research focus:

About one in two men and one in three women will develop cancer in their lifetime. In men, prostate cancer is the type of cancer with the highest incidence and second mortality rate. Imaging solutions are still lacking, leaving systematic biopsy sessions as the only reliable diagnostic option. Based on the link between angiogenesis and cancer growth, extended research has investigated perfusion analysis for cancer detection. However, perfusion is affected by several opposing factors complicating the link between perfusion and angiogenesis.

This project aims at providing a cost-effective imaging solution for the localization of prostate cancer and other neo-angiogenic forms of cancer based on dynamic contrast-enhanced ultrasonography.

The challenges to achieve this goal will be addressed by a multidisciplinary team involving clinical, industrial and academic experts along with 3 PhD students (2 engineers and 1 medical doctor). The vacancy at hand concerns of one these PhD positions and involves a close collaboration with the other team members.

Vacancy:

Motivated by the statistics and current imaging limitations, our initial focus will be on prostate cancer. Recently, a promising approach is emerging that characterizes the microvascular architecture by quantification of the dispersion kinetics of a contrast agent. As a result, neo-angiogenic processes and cancer can be detected from the related changes in the microvascular architecture.

Following the injection of a contrast bolus, the prostate is scanned by ultrasound imaging and indicator dilution curves are measured at each pixel covering the prostate. Model-based spatiotemporal analysis of these curves permits the assessment of the dispersion kinetics of the agent through the microvasculature, reflecting the underlying microvascular architecture. Based on the link between neo-angiogenesis and cancer growth, dispersion quantification permits localizing prostate cancer. Dispersion can be assessed by analysis of the spatiotemporal similarity between neighbor dilution curves. This approach can possibly be improved and generalized by employment of information theory concepts such as entropy and statistical dependency. Moreover, use of targeted agents can be considered and included in the model to boost the method accuracy.

In order to facilitate the clinical employment of the proposed approach, a 3D solution should be achieved, where the full prostate is analyzed by a single bolus injection. Eventually, we expect the design and implementation of an imaging method able to generate 3D parametric dispersion maps of the prostate for diagnostic purposes as well as for guidance of biopsy and intervention. Monitoring, follow-up, and evaluation of therapy will also be enabled by the proposed method. The proposed concepts will also be extended to other types of cancer and other diseases where angiogenesis plays an important role.

Requirements

We are looking for candidates who:

• have a strong MSc degree in Electrical Engineering, Physics, or a related discipline;
• have a strong background in signal modeling and analysis, preferably in a biomedical context;
• have a strong background in ultrasound imaging;
• can think out of the box, distinguish main lines from details, and provide structure to their work;
- have excellent multidisciplinary team working and communication skills.