Mri-guided robotic breast biopsy and therapeutics

Abstract

Breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been shown to be a very sensitive method for the detection of breast cancer, offers a plethora of contrast mechanisms, high image quality and has no ionizing radiation. Fueled by continuous advances in MRI, established interpretation guidelines, and an ever growing availability of magnetic resonance (MR)-compatible breast biopsy systems, MRI of the breast is gaining popularity in clinical practice. Moreover, MRI can monitor and can facilitate the regulation of thermal- and cryoablations that emerge as breast conserving therapies. Currently MRI-guided breast interventions are multistep processes performed with the patient removed from the MRI secondary to the limited access to the patient inside the high-field scanners. To address this, groundbreaking works have introduced breast-specific MR-compatible robots to extend the presence of the interventionalist inside the scanner. Innovative works have introduced technology for the stabilization of breast tissue, computational methods for MR-guidance and multi-scale tissue characterization. Despite the potential benefits, MR-compatible robotic breast interventions are not clinically practiced. This chapter details the challenges of MRI-guided breast biopsy and therapeutics, proposed robotic solutions and outlines current trends.