ABSTRACT: The intersection of healthcare and biomedical research is at an inflection point with the
convergence of the digital revolution, advances in imaging, nanotechnology, big data science, and
precision or personalized medicine. There is a wealth of meaningful, but complex information that could
be extracted from imaging data but is not optimally utilized for patient care. Cancer care exemplifies the
current challenges which include early detection, accurate distinction of pre- neoplastic and neoplastic
lesions, prediction of tumor aggressiveness, determining infiltrative tumor margins during surgical
treatment, tracking tumor evolution/ metastasis pattern, recurrence, and potential acquired resistance to
treatments over time. Major strides have been made in the personalization of cancer therapies such as
immunotherapy, but the availability of specific, relevant, and timely medical data and information is of
critical importance to realizing the full potential of precision medicine. Nowhere is this more acutely
evident than during interventions in the operating and procedure rooms. Novel methods of image
guidance, data integration, information extraction, and knowledge transfer are needed to enable
clinicians to fully leverage the information available, especially before, during and after invasive
procedures. We are excited to re-submit a proposal for a new P41 biomedical resource center (BTRC)
called Advanced Technologies for NCIGT(AT-NCIGT) with 3 TRDs, 10 new collaborative and 10 new
service projects, all of which aim to investigate develop and disseminate new technologies for image
guided therapy (IGT). The 3 components are Imaging Cancer Heterogeneity for IGT, Deep Learning
for IGT and Intraoperative devices for IGT. These new technologies alone and in combinations will
allow for greater understanding of disease state, treatment guidance, integration/navigation and in-vivo
monitoring of tissue responses and improve the precision of invasive procedures.
Thus the overall goal of this proposal is to investigate, develop and disseminate novel technologies for
extracting new tissue characteristics (technology research and development core TRD 1: Imaging cancer
heterogeneity; analyze them and make them available through state-of-the-art algorithmic and data
curation approaches (Deep Learning TRD 2); and enable precise tissue sampling surgical navigation and
in-vivo tissue response through the results of novel Intraoperative devices (Intraoperative devices for
IGT: TRD 3). In order to effectively disseminate all this new knowledge we have 10 new collaborative and
10 new service projects and will share these novel tools through our established mechanisms, from
current BTRC- National Center for Image Guided Therapy (NCIGT), which continues to be dedicated to
the innovating for IGT into interventional radiology, surgery, radiation oncology, and procedure-based
medicine.