EPIC Meeting on Photonics for Cancer Diagnostics and Treatment
Opening & Welcome
Welcoming words – Jose Pozo, CTO, EPIC – European Photonics Industry Consortium - PDF
KEYNOTE: Future of healthcare – Theo Ruers, Oncological Surgeon, NKI (THE NETHERLANDS) - PDF
SESSION 1: Clinical needs and new technologies for prostate cancer
Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers in men. Statistically about 1 of 35 men will die from it, at the same time it is highly treatable at early stages. Thus, currently there are increasing need for early diagnostics. At the same time surgical treatment could highly benefit from new technologies to maximize presentation of all the functions. The main candidates for the surgical assistance discussed in this session include Raman spectroscopy, Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT), confocal and fluorescent imaging. These methods separately or in combination are cable of accurate tissue differentiation and to provide in vivo optical pathology. While there are multiple challenges in clinical validation yet to overcome, robotics surgical guidance represents a perfect platform for their validation and further implementation and use.
Clinical demands for intra-operative imaging in prostate cancer
Henk van der Poel, Urologist, NKI (THE NETHERLANDS) - video
Optical diagnostics of l urinary tract cancer: towards real time finding and grading
Daniel Martijn de Bruin, Group leader urological research, AMC (THE NETHERLANDS) - PDF - video
Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging for Clinical Applications: Application to Trans-Oral Robotic Surgery
Julien Bec, Engineering and Operations Director, University of California (USA) - PDF
SESSION 2: Pre- and intraoperative imaging of breast cancer
Breast cancer is a worldwide problem and it has to be taken into account when a new method is about to be introduced in the clinics. E.g. as breast conservative surgery (BCS) is currently preferred option it is critical to establish clean margins to decide on the further course of treatment and the definition of clean margins differs per country/region. A few very promising technologies to address diagnostics and surgical guidance of breast cancer discussed included Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy (DRS), Third Harmonic Generation (THG) and Raman imaging. The highest advantage of this techniques is that while they are label free and require zero sample preparation, they are able to provide very sensitive results with very high resolution, which potentially can also lead to their use in the in vivo setting.
Clinical demands for intra-operative imaging in breast cancer
Susan Brouwer de Koning, Technical Physician, NKI (THE NETHERLANDS) - PDF - video
Third Harmonic Generation Microscopy for Instant Pathology
Marloes Groot, Professor, Vrije Universiteit (THE NETHERLANDS) - video
Emerging diagnostic imaging modalities in breast cancer
Jacques Cochard, Business Development, Tematys (FRANCE) - PDF - video
SESSION 3: Industry pitch presentations
The current photonics technology at the medical market id photo-acoustic imaging. It is a mature technology and it is providing an acceptable tradeoff between dose and contrast. One of the biggest challenges for the optical methods in order to permeate medical market is the visual difference between commonly used X-Ray or CT images compared to those acquired with optical methods. Other challenge includes requirements to the components of the system. The companies presented wide variety of different components which can be bringing the new technologies yet another step closer to clinic. Among presented components there were lasers, sensors, fibers, etc. as well as full systems for different optical systems.
Antje Haap-Hoff, Head of Clinical Applications, KARL STORZ (GERMANY) - PDF - video
Galit Ankri Eliahoo, Project Manager, OAL Innovations (ISRAEL) - PDF - video
Frank van Mourik, CTO, Femto diagnostics (THE NETHERLANDS) - PDF - video
Zoe Ylöniemi, Technical Sales Engineer, Modulight (FINLAND) - PDF - video
Jonathan Klee, Sales Manager, Ushio (THE NETHERLANDS) PDF - video
Gerwin Puppels, Managing Director, RiverD (THE NETHERLANDS) - PDF - video
Viacheslav Artyushenko, President, art photonics (GERMANY) - PDF - video
Nicolas LIO SOON SHUN, Business Development, CEA – Leti (FRANCE) - PDF - video
Christopher Phillips, Senior Research Scientist, ETH Zurich (SWITSERLAND) - PDF - video
David Heard, VP Sales, Santec (UNITED KINGDOM) - PDF - video
SESSION 4: Multimodality optical imaging
Non-contact imaging such as multimodal imaging can provide significant enhancement to the optical image and therefore improve the precision of the detection of the altered tissue. While in cases such as skin cancer it might be a minor advantage, for neurological cases it can mean preservation of additional functions of the patient. Combination of the optical methods with the acoustic methods could bring yet another advantage, for instance when combined into an optoacoustic mammography system. Such system would be capable to provide both deep tissue imaging and high spatial resolution. Novel Mosquito Bite Needle Endoscopy (MBNE) offers cancer diagnostics with significant improvements such as no pain, no bleeding, faster healing and potential for the real time tissue diagnosis. Another technique aiming to improve cancer diagnostics is based on combination of the OCT and Near Infra-Red Fluorescence (NIRF) and can be realized in all fiber set-up making it easier to use and to implement.
Non-contact imaging for monitoring vital functions and diagnostics using ‘smart’ technologies
Ruud Verdaasdonk, Professor, University of Twente (THE NETHERLANDS) - PDF - video
Presentation by Tyndall National Institute
Stefan Andersson-Engels, Head of Biophotonics, Tyndall National Institute (IRELAND) - PDF - video
Development of Ultra-Fine Needle Endoscope for Deep Interstitial Examination of Brest and preliminary results of Breast Cancer Diagnostics by Endoscopy Autofluorescence Imaging and Raman Spectroscopy
Alexandre Douplik, Professor, Ryerson University (CANADA) and Alexandra Easson, Professor, University of Toronto (CANADA) - PDF - video