Deployable Curved Bladder Catheters for Precise Brachytherapy
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current brachytherapy methods for muscle-invasive bladder cancer are invasive and inefficient, leading to complications such as urinary tract infections, wound dehiscence, and difficulty in accurately targeting tumor cells within the bladder.
Innovation Solution
A collapsible and curved radiation therapy system with flexible, shape-memory catheters that transition from an uncoiled delivery state to a coiled deployed state within the bladder, allowing for precise radiation delivery to target areas and potentially combining radiation with hyperthermia treatment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If interstitial brachytherapy using needles or catheters is used to treat bladder cancer, then radiation can be delivered to the tumor, but the treatment becomes invasive and causes complications such as urinary tract infections, wound dehiscence, and other surgical complications
Solution Approach 1:
The bladder is divided into multiple treatment zones using multiple catheters positioned at different locations. Each catheter delivers radiation to a specific segment of the bladder wall, allowing comprehensive coverage while minimizing the need for invasive surgical approaches. The segmentation of treatment delivery through multiple independent catheters enables non-invasive brachytherapy while maintaining therapeutic efficacy.
Solution Approach 2:
A non-invasive intermediary system is introduced consisting of a delivery catheter that can be inserted through the urethra and a deployable radiation-delivering catheter. This intermediary system allows radiation sources to be delivered to the bladder wall without requiring open surgical incisions, thereby preventing surgical complications while maintaining treatment efficacy through controlled radiation delivery.
2Reliability
If traditional brachytherapy catheters are used, then radiation can be applied to the bladder, but the catheters cannot accurately target tumor cells within the bladder due to the thin bladder wall and tumor location variability
Solution Approach 1:
The radiation-delivering catheter is designed with dynamic deployability, transitioning from a compressed delivery state to an expanded treatment state. This dynamic capability allows the catheter to conform to the thin bladder wall and reach tumors at various locations. The catheter can be selectively deployed to target specific tumor regions while sparing healthy tissue, achieving both accurate targeting and reliable radiation delivery.
Solution Approach 2:
The catheter system utilizes parameter changes in its structural configuration, transitioning from a low-profile delivery state to an expanded treatment state. This parameter change enables the catheter to adapt to different tumor locations and depths within the bladder, improving targeting precision while maintaining the ability to deliver reliable radiation doses through controlled expansion and positioning.
3Ease of operation
If non-invasive surface application of brachytherapy is used, then the thin bladder wall is utilized, but the radiation sources cannot be precisely positioned at deep tumor sites within the bladder
Solution Approach 1:
The system employs a nested structure where a radiation-delivering catheter is contained within a delivery catheter. The inner radiation-delivering catheter can be selectively extended or deployed from the outer delivery catheter to reach deep tumor sites within the bladder. This nested design maintains non-invasive application through the urethra while enabling precise positioning of radiation sources at deep tumor locations through controlled deployment of the inner catheter.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods for minimally invasively delivering radiation therapy to a patient, e.g., with bladder cancer, is provided. The radiotherapy system includes one or more catheters that may be introduced to a patient's anatomical structure via a sheath using an intracavitary approach. The proximal end of the one or more catheters may be coupled to an afterloader for selectively delivering the radiation therapy, and the distal portion of the one or more catheters is transitionable between an uncoiled delivery state within the sheath and a coiled deployed state having a spherical configuration within the anatomical structure of the patient, such that the one or more catheters contacts at least a portion of the anatomical structure in the deployed state.