ACQUISiTION OF IMAGES OF MOVING ORGANS - Isis Project No 2835

Introduction

Isis Innovation, the technology transfer company of the University of Oxford, releases a new method for the acquisition of medical images of moving organs.

Marketing Opportunity

Worldwide over 1 million people are diagnosed with colorectal cancer annually, with a great proportion developing metastatic liver disease requiring follow up with abdominal Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI).  Radiographers and Radiologists have raised breathing artefacts as a major issue in accurate diagnosis and estimation of tumour volumes.  With current methods, in 19% of cases at least 5% of the liver is missed.  Indeed, for lesions between 6 and 30mm in diameter, 3% are missed completely with a further 21% being incorrectly staged, leading to false diagnosis of disease progression or regression.

The Oxford Invention

Working closely with clinical staff, Oxford scientists have used their expertise to find a robust solution. On the left, is an image that is reconstructed from a series of slices.  The liver boundary is not smooth and the tumour seems to consist of multiple parts.  After application of the Oxford technology, the liver outline is much smoother and the tumour well represented by a spherical shape.  The technology significantly improves patient comfort by reducing scan duration and avoiding recalls. The improved quality and accuracy of the dataset provides meaningful estimation of tumour volumes for more precise chemotherapy dose calculation.  It is estimated that 25% of the annual 2 million abdominal MRI scans worldwide would benefit from this innovation.  The invention reached the Finals of the 2007 Medical Futures Innovation Awards and was also the subject of a recent paper in the European Journal of Radiology. 

It is planned to extend the technology to other organs and modalities.

Commercialisation Status

The underlying method is the subject of an International Patent Application and could be implemented on existing and new MRI systems.  Isis would like to talk to companies interested in developing the commercial opportunity.

Request Further Information: Project Number 2835 Acquisiton of Images of Moving Organs