Sunram 5: An MR Safe Robotic System for Breast Biopsy

Abstract

In breast cancer screening, the radiologist may find lesions that need to be biopsied for accurate histological evaluation. The current manual biopsy procedure is inaccurate and inefficient. A robotic system is proposed that can manipulate a biopsy needle inside the scanner bore. The robot has five degrees of freedom, driven by single and dual-speed stepper motors. In combination with the versatile breast fixation system, it is able to target lesions anywhere in the breast. A safety mechanism is included that ejects the needle out of the breast in case of emergency. With these novelties incorporated, the proposed system solves important limitations of state-of-art robotic systems concerning speed/accuracy, workspace and safety.