A team of Dartmouth engineers and cancer researchers is one of the first eight announced by the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) to receive up to $31 million through its Precision Surgical Interventions (PSI) program for their work in surgical image guidance.
Dartmouth Health surgeon Eric R. Henderson, MD, serves as the clinical director for the award while Lawrence M. Dagrosa, MD, and Elinar F. Sverrisson, MD, are the surgical investigators who will conduct clinical testing. Team leaders include Kimberly Samkoe, PhD, Keith Paulsen, PhD, Ryan Halter, PhD, and Scott Davis, PhD, all members of Dartmouth Cancer Center’s Translational Engineering in Cancer (TEC) Research Program. They will lead researchers at six collaborating organizations to develop a laparoscope-integrating imaging solution that will be especially helpful in prostate cancer surgeries.
The goal of the project is to be able to identify and locate critical structures such as nerves, vessels, ducts, or glands that currently cannot be imaged in real-time. They will use nerve-dyeing and ureter-dyeing contrast agents, in addition to vascular dyes, to cause these structures to fluoresce, or light up. They will then map and visualize the 3D shape and depth of the structures. With this capability, surgeons would be able to make rapid intra-operative decisions to avoid unnecessary injury to the patient.
Learn more about this award. An agency within the US Department of Health and Human Services, ARPA-H's contribution enables progress in the Biden Cancer Moonshot Initiative.
About Dartmouth Cancer Center
Dartmouth Cancer Center combines advanced cancer research at Dartmouth and the Geisel School of Medicine, with award-winning, personalized, and compassionate patient-centered cancer care and clinical trials based at the Norris Cotton Cancer Care Pavilion at Dartmouth Health's Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. With 14 locations around New Hampshire and Vermont, Dartmouth Cancer Center is one of only 57 National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers. Each year the Dartmouth Cancer Center schedules 74,000 appointments seeing more than 4,500 newly diagnosed patients, and currently offers patients more than 240 active clinical trials. Celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2022, Dartmouth Cancer Center remains committed to excellence, outreach and education. We strive to prevent and cure cancer, enhance survivorship and to promote cancer health equity through pioneering interdisciplinary research and collaborations. Learn more at the Dartmouth Cancer Center website.
About Dartmouth Health
Dartmouth Health, New Hampshire’s only academic health system and the state’s largest private employer, serves patients across northern New England. Dartmouth Health provides access to more than 2,000 providers in almost every area of medicine, delivering care at its flagship hospital, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) in Lebanon, NH, as well as across its wide network of hospitals, clinics and care facilities. DHMC is consistently named the #1 hospital in New Hampshire by U.S. News & World Report, and is recognized for high performance in numerous clinical specialties and procedures. Dartmouth Health includes Dartmouth Cancer Center, one of only 57 National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers in the nation, and the only such center in northern New England; Dartmouth Health Children’s, which includes the state’s only children’s hospital and multiple locations around the region; member hospitals in Lebanon, Keene, Claremont and New London, NH, and Windsor and Bennington, VT; Visiting Nurse and Hospice for Vermont and New Hampshire; and more than 24 clinics that provide ambulatory and specialty services across New Hampshire and Vermont. Through its historical partnership with Dartmouth and the Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth Health trains nearly 400 medical residents and fellows annually, and performs cutting-edge research and clinical trials recognized across the globe with Geisel and the White River Junction VA Medical Center in White River Junction, VT. Dartmouth Health and its more than 13,000 employees are deeply committed to serving the healthcare needs of everyone in our communities, and to providing each of our patients with exceptional, personal care.