During surgery, tumor tissue is often difficult to identify. As a consequence, the surgeon can have difficulty deciding which tissue should be removed and which tissue can be spared. If tumor tissue is left behind during surgery, the risk of local recurrence increases which often necessitates.
To tackle this problem, we developed and implemented a concept called image-guided surgery to improve surgical precision and patient outcome. This innovative approach is concentrated around the three sequential steps within the surgical workflow; Tumor localization, Tumor treatment (surgical resection) and Assessment of tumor treatment. Read more about our reseach.
Since January 2020, surgical navigation is available for open abdominal surgeries as standard care. This technique allows the surgeon to interact with a pre-operative scans and a patient-specific 3D model which are tracked . The model consists of critical structures and tumor(s), providing the surgeon accurate and real-time information about where they are within the abdomen during their surgery on the position of their instruments and hence can guide the surgeon during the procedure.
Our group showed in a recent publication that adding navigation to recurrent rectal cancer increased the resection rate significantly.
Optical tissue sensing
We developed optical tissue sensing technologies able to discriminate in real time tumor tissue from healthy surrounding tissue. This technology proofs, highly accurate for different kind of tumors and is tested for clinical efficacy. The technology allows radical tumor resection while sparing surrounding normal tissue, contributing to better clinical outcome.
