Future projects funded: "Augmented reality" in the operating theatre and better treatment of cervical cancer

Leipzig. The Dr Hubertus von Grünberg Foundation, newly established at the UKL, has positively assessed the first funding applications and is supporting them with 60,000 euros each. The two funded working groups are developing future-oriented methods for the further development of surgical treatment procedures.

The Dr Hubertus von Grünberg Foundation has set itself the goal of promoting the development of application-oriented innovative concepts and treatment techniques. The foundation was established in 2022 at Leipzig University Hospital (UKL) and has an endowment capital of two million euros. The first applications for funding have now been assessed. Two projects have been selected and will receive support totalling 60,000 euros each.

The first is the development of a surgical AR (augmented reality) navigation system by a working group at the Department of Neurosurgery at the UKL under the clinical direction of Prof Dr Dirk Winkler. The aim is to make computer-aided navigation technologies easier to use in the operating theatre by using data goggles to display augmented reality. For example, the positions of surgical instruments are to be displayed in real time in CT and MRI images. Highly sensitive structures would also be displayed virtually as "no-touch areas" and thus protected even better. "In this way, the method of data-assisted orientation in the surgical field, which has already been successfully established in neurosurgery, could be significantly further developed and subsequently made accessible to more surgical sub-disciplines and users than before," explains project manager PD Dr Ronny Grunert. This would be a great advantage for patients, as the computer data would increase the accuracy of the interventions and thus not only the success of the treatment but also the safety of the patients.

How do tumour cells interact with healthy tissue?

The second project deals with questions relating to the improved treatment of cervical carcinomas. The focus here is on how tumour cells interact with the healthy tissue in their vicinity. It has been known for many years that tumour cells are in dialogue with neighbouring healthy cells and manipulate their environment in order to create optimal growth conditions for themselves. The exact mechanisms involved in cervical carcinoma have not yet been sufficiently investigated. "But we already know some things," explains Dr Benjamin Wolf, head of the project based at the UKL Women's Hospital. "In other types of cancer, such as pancreatic cancer, it is known that activation of the angiotensin signalling pathway plays an important role in the development of this tissue change known as demoplasia. Whether this is also the case in cervical carcinoma will be the subject of the planned investigations. The angiotensin signalling pathway normally plays an important role in blood pressure regulation in particular.

"We want to gain a better understanding of the exact links between desmoplasia and tumour formation and how we can adapt and improve our treatment measures on the basis of these findings," says Wolf. "We think that in the future, for example, there is a chance of combating these tissues and thus the cancer by administering drugs." Experimental models have already shown that interrupting the angiotensin signalling pathway leads to normalisation of the tissue.

Source: Press release from Leipzig University Hospital dated 2 December 2022