PI's: Prof. Dr. Nassir Navab, PD. Dr. med. Alexander Meining
PhD student: Selen Atasoy, Dipl. Inf.

Diagnosis at early stages of oesophageal adenocarcinoma, a highly lateral type of cancer, has the potential to prevent disease progression and increase the survival rate. The role of screening and surveillance of Barrett?s Oesophagus, being the only recognised precursor of oesophageal adenocarcinoma, is crucial for this goal. Current surveillance protocol is based on obtaining four- quadrant random biopsies during endoscopic examination. However, this protocol lacks the identification of the previous biopsy sites and thus, suffers from sampling errors due to inaccurate biopsy localisation.

The aim of the proposed Ph.D. project is to support the cancer surveillance protocol by providing an advanced tissue visualization framework for the identification and accurate targeting of previous biopsy sites. To this end, a novel anatomical/functional image registration method will be developed to combine endoscopic images with the recent functional imaging techniques such as auto-fluorescence imaging and microfonfocal microscopy. Furthermore, novel video processing techniques that allow wide-area visualization of the examined tissue will be developed. The objective of this project is to provide a highly distinctive map of the region of interest, to link the previous biopsy locations, and support the physician by targeting the same biopsy sites during surveillance examinations.