COBRA – Technical Workshop

COBRA TECHNICAL WORKSHOP
Towards smart technologies for diagnosis and treatment of localised cancers

December 7^th, 2020
3.30 – 5.00 pm

Cooperative Brachytherapy (CoBra) European 2seas Interreg project Technical Workshop on Real-Time MRI guided automated Brachytherapy solution will be held during a round table coupled with the live demonstration of the brachytherapy robot prototype. CoBra project partners will also hold an exhibition stand during MedFIT convention where short demonstrations of the robot concept will be available regularly. Partners of the CoBra project will be available for one-to-one meetings during the online convention. Professor Rochdi Merzouki will start the technical workshop with the presentation of the CoBra project progress and a live demonstration of the robotic Brachytherapy solution and will lead the following round table. The round table will be composed of doctors, industrials and led by the leader of the CoBra project Pr Merzouki (University of Lille). Discussions will focus on opening up innovative technology for diagnosis and treatment of cancers

About CoBra

Technological innovation for biopsy and brachytherapy under MRI control, in order to improve diagnosis and treatment of localised cancers

Clinical context:
Prostate cancer is the fourth most common cancer in Europe, for both combined sexes and the second most common cancer in men. Treatment of such cancer can be performed by surgery, external radiotherapy (RT) or brachytherapy. Surgery consists in removing the entire prostate, while RT involves irradiating the target volume with a particle accelerator. Brachytherapy is a technique better tolerated by patients, aiming to irradiate a target volume by placing radioisotopes emitting low or high ionizing radiation in it or in its contact, only in one intervention. However it presents also certain practical limits, such as: manual handling of radioactive needles that raises fears among practitioners; impotence, incontinence and trauma of patient.

Objectives:
The CoBra project aims to improve the quality of both diagnosis and treatment of localised cancers, by developing a new medical robot prototype for adaptive brachytherapy and biopsy under guidance of MRI. The overall objectives of the project is to improve the accuracy of both cancer diagnosis and of cancer treatment, increasing cure rates and minimising side effects. The prostate and other soft tissues will be the main localised cancers of interest in the Cobra project.