3D printed livers help cancer surgeons

Surgeons in Southampton are the first in the UK to trial the use of 3D printed models of patients’ livers to better treat bile duct cancer.

The study will be led by Mr Arjun Takhar, a consultant hepatobiliary and pancreatic cancer surgeon at University Hospital Southampton.

He is part of a team of experts supported by PLANETS Cancer Charity.

Complex surgery

All patients taking part in the study have hilar cholangiocarcinoma, a cancer of the bile ducts. These small tubes connect the liver and gallbladder to the small intestine, carrying bile to aid digestion.

With this type of cancer, it's often difficult for surgeons to work out if a tumour can be safely removed or not until the operation is underway.

“With this particularly challenging liver/bile duct cancer, sometimes we are unable to tell until the very last minute whether the tumour can be safely removed or not,” explains Mr Takhar.

“Sometimes surgeons will have taken an irreversible step and then found out that the tumour cannot be removed completely. This results in poor outcomes for patients in the short and long-term.”

Improved planning

The researchers will use data from CT and MRI scans to create 3D models, made to scale, of each patient’s liver. These will be tailored to each patient, so the surgeons can use them to assess the tumour and nearby blood vessels and bile ducts.

This will enable them to carefully plan how to remove the tumour before they start surgery.

“3D printed models are increasingly being used to help with decision-making before and during surgery, and to better understand the anatomical relationships of tumours within organ structures,” Mr Takhar says.

“3D printing offers the advantage of assessing the tumour and its close attachments, such as blood vessels and bile ducts, in a scale model prior to performing the operation itself.”

‘Unique opportunity’

The aim of the pilot project is to find out if surgeons can use the 3D models to determine whether or not they should operate on a patient. The researchers also want to find out if using these models is better than simply looking at the patient’s CT and MRI scans.

The models could also be used to help teach trainee surgeons detailed liver anatomy, so they can better understand these complex tumours.

PLANETS Cancer Charity are funding the study. They have received £2,000 from The Hospital Saturday Fund to put towards the project.

The charity helps patients with many different types of cancer by funding patient support groups, innovative treatments and research. It serves the needs of people living in Hampshire, Wiltshire, Dorset, the Isle of Wight, the Channel Islands and West Sussex.

Mr Takhar says: “This is a unique opportunity to use a novel technology to help patients with a difficult disease, and we foresee adoption of the technology in patients with other liver tumours too.”