One-second 3D scanning: Innovation in breast cancer surgery

Researchers from the Digital Surgery Lab at the Champalimaud Foundation have developed an automatic 3D surface scanning system that captures breast cancer patients' anatomy in just one second. The study, involving 30 patients, demonstrated that the system is significantly faster and more user-friendly than current manual methods, paving the way for using "Digital Twins" to guide surgeries with Augmented Reality.

Authors and Affiliations: 

Rafaela Timóteo, Alexandre Laborde, Yasna Forghani, João Santinha, Daniel Simões Lopes, Pedro Gouveia e Tiago Marques.

Breast Cancer Research Program, Champalimaud Foundation, Lisboa, Portugal.

Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal.

ITI/LARSYS, Lisboa, Portugal.

Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal.

IT People, Lisboa, Portugal.

Abstract:

Digital Twins (DTs) are virtual representations of a patient's anatomy that can revolutionize surgery guidance when paired with augmented reality. However, accurate intraoperative alignment requires high-precision surface scanning. We developed an automatic 3D surface scan system based on two RGB-D cameras for breast cancer (BC) surgery. In a clinical study involving 30 BC patients, we compared our system to a manual, high-resolution scanner. The median deviation between systems was 3.0 (IQR 2.6 to 3.6) mm. Acquisition time was 1 s, compared with 84 s for the manual scanner. Five radiology technicians highlighted our system's high performance with an excellent user experience (System Usability Scale: 92.0 +/- 4.5 vs 70.5 +/- 17.5) with lower perceived effort and frustration. Intraoperative surface scanning of one patient demonstrated a successful adaptation to the surgical site, supporting potential integration into BC surgical workflows.

Journal: European Journal of Surgical Oncology (EJSO)

Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0748798326001265?dgcid=author