For the past eight years, an image-guided liver surgery system has been developed by engineers and clinicians at several academic institutions, including Vanderbilt University and Washington University in St. Louis. In mid-2004, after initial investigations demonstrated that the system could be used in a clinical setting to more effectively treat liver cancer, Pathfinder Therapeutics, Inc. was founded as a medical device corporation to develop commercial, integrated systems for use in image-guided therapy. The primary focus of the company at this time is to take the image-guided liver surgery technology developed in the academic environment and translate it to a commercial setting where it can be specifically used to perform more efficient, accurate procedures and improve patient outcomes. Since its use in neurosurgery over ten years ago, there have always been divergent views of whether image-guided surgery has a place in a particular surgical field until the technology is proven to be effective. In order to successfully market and develop a profitable image-guided liver surgery product, we must convince surgeons that this should be the standard of care in treating several forms of liver cancer. The Phase I portion of this fast-track SBIR details the technical steps that must be completed to create a commercial-quality prototype system that can be replicated for distribution and used in an efficacy clinical trial. The clinical trial detailed in the Phase II portion will demonstrate the utility and effectiveness of image-guidance in treating liver cancer. Our trial will focus on demonstrating improvement in several factors that lead to hepatic failure, including increased residual functional liver volume following tumor resection and decreased patient time spent in the operating room. Through this investigation, we will show that image-guided liver surgery should be the standard of care for liver resection procedures. This claim will allow us to successfully commercialize image-guided liver surgery. ? ?

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Type
Small Business Innovation Research Grants (SBIR) - Phase II (R44)
Project #
1R44CA119502-01
Application #
7054176
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1-SBIB-H (13))
Program Officer
Farahani, Keyvan
Project Start
2006-09-29
Project End
2007-05-31
Budget Start
2006-09-29
Budget End
2007-05-31
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
2006
Total Cost
$149,102
Indirect Cost
Name
Pathfinder Therapeutics
Department
Type
DUNS #
154498781
City
Nashville
State
TN
Country
United States
Zip Code
37204
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Kingham, T Peter; Jayaraman, Shiva; Clements, Logan W et al. (2013) Evolution of image-guided liver surgery: transition from open to laparoscopic procedures. J Gastrointest Surg 17:1274-82
Dumpuri, Prashanth; Clements, Logan W; Dawant, Benoit M et al. (2010) Model-updated image-guided liver surgery: preliminary results using surface characterization. Prog Biophys Mol Biol 103:197-207