Although bladder cancer is the sixth most common form of cancer
in the U.S. and the most expensive to treat, the basic method that doctors use
to treat it hasn’t changed much in more than 70 years.
An interdisciplinary collaboration of engineers and doctors
at Vanderbilt and Columbia Universities intends to change that situation dramatically.
Headed by Nabil Simaan, associate professor of mechanical engineering at
Vanderbilt, the team has developed a prototype telerobotic platform designed to
be inserted through natural orifices – in this case the urethra – that can
provide surgeons with a much better view of bladder tumors so they can diagnose
them more accurately. It is also designed to make it easier to remove tumors
from the lining of the bladder regardless of their location – an operation
called transurethral recession.