Press Releases

Every tenth woman is afflicted with breast cancer during her lifetime. The diagnosis and treatment of a patient involves the collaboration of a wide range of specialists. The broad range of software platforms for storage and visualization of medical imaging data used by radiologists, pathologists, oncologists, radiotherapists and surgeons, brings challenges for communication and data transfer between the platforms. Improved extraction and transfer of information between the platforms may support breast cancer diagnosis and therapy planning.

X-rays can provide much more than radiography for diagnosing bone fractures or internal disease. In the form of high-energy photon beams, cancer can be treated by exposing tumors to a strong dose of targeted radiation. This type of radiation therapy is currently one of the most important treatment methods for cancer; about half of all tumor patients are now treated with photon or particle beams. The novel, interdisciplinary SPARTA project commenced on April 1, 2013 to improve this method by using modern software technology to support tumor radiation in a more effective and patient-friendly fashion than existing methods.

Ultrasound can do much more than record images from the body. Clinicians now use ultrasound to treat tumors. Powerful, concentrated ultrasound waves are focused in the patient’s body to heat cancer cells to 60 degrees Celsius, destroying them and leaving healthy tissue largely unharmed. Until now, this ‘focused ultrasound therapy’ has only been approved for a small number of diseases, such as uterine tumors and prostate cancer.

A partnership tracing back ten years between Fraunhofer MEVIS in Bremen and the Kyoto University Hospital laid the foundation for the success of image-guided planning and risk assessment for living donor liver transplantation that has gained current worldwide use as a distant service.

Fraunhofer MEVIS Bids Farewell to Founder and Institute Director Prof. Dr. Heinz-Otto Peitgen on October 1, 2012

To increase patient safety in clinical practice and minimize risks and damage that may arise during surgery, computer support and digital medical imaging are key technologies. Before brain operations, neurosurgeons can now evaluate patient-specific surgical risks, achieve increased safety, and avoid unacceptable risks.

Today, the Fraunhofer Institute for Medical Image Computing (Fraunhofer MEVIS) received its own scanner for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Today, challenging liver surgery is frequently planned and optimized with regard to associated risks with the support of a computer. Based on radiological image data, the liver vessels and tumors are analyzed to produce a patient-individual three-dimensional representation of the liver.