Octopus: oncological concurrent tomographic optoacoustics, pet and ultrasonography.
Cancer is the second leading cause of death globally. Noninvasive imaging of tumor hallmarks helps to combat cancer more efficiently. However, cancer is a complex disease and modern imaging of cancer should evolve to help exploring the interaction between different cancer hallmarks and to predict the evolution of some of them in relation to others. Besides, these new techniques should provide answers to the present unmet need for determining, precisely, how, which and when targeted therapeutic agents can be used for optimized efficacy. In this project we will build a new hybrid cancer imaging device: OCTOPUS (Oncological Concurrent Tomographic Optoacoustics, PET and UltraSonography), that will pioneer the intersection of molecular, vascular and tissue oxygenation information, three major hallmarks of cancer. OCTOPUS is a timely action to study tumor dynamics with a hybrid hallmark perspective in a longitudinal, simultaneous, quantitative, fully co-registered and in vivo manner. To reach this goal, I will develop cutting-edges technologies regarding multispectral tomographic optoacoustic using an arrangement of 3D ultrasound arrays, combined with actual 3D sequences of Ultrafast Ultrasound and a custom-made PET system for data acquisition and reconstruction. A deep learning framework will be created for advanced multiparametric analysis of OCTOPUS derived data to facilitate the interpretation of intra-tumoral processes in order to improve high-precision image-guided treatment and ultimately to guide in the design of targeted therapies.