Breast conserving surgery outcome prediction: A patient-specific, integrated multi-modal imaging and mechano-biological modelling framework

Abstract

Patient-specific surgical predictions of Breast Conserving Therapy, through mechano-biological simulations, could inform the shared decision making process between clinicians and patients by enabling the impact of different surgical options to be visualised. We present an overview of our processing workflow that integrates MR images and three dimensional optical surface scans into a personalised model. Utilising an interactively generated surgical plan, a multi-scale open source finite element solver is employed to simulate breast deformity based on interrelated physiological and biomechanical processes that occur post surgery. Our outcome predictions, based on the presurgical imaging, were validated by comparing the simulated outcome with follow-up surface scans of four patients acquired 6 to 12 months post-surgery. A mean absolute surface distance of 3.3mm between the follow-up scan and the simulation was obtained.