Signal and image processing in medical nanorobotics: The art of tracking and imaging therapeutics navigated in the vascular network towards the region to be treated

In clinical applications such as cancer therapies, navigation control of drug-loaded microcarriers through the human vascular network offers many advantages compared to actual methods such as chemotherapy. Indeed, by directly targeting tumors using the most direct route, systemic circulation can be avoided and as such, therapeutic efficacy can potentially be enhanced substantially while eliminating or at least minimizing secondary toxicity for the patients. But to be able to navigate in smaller diameter vessels, these therapeutic microcarriers have an overall size well below the spatial resolution of any medical imaging modalities, while real-time performance due to too long acquisition time to guarantee robust navigation control becomes a real technical challenge. Imaging the therapeutic microcarriers deep in the targeted tissues is also critical to assess not only targeting efficacy, but also to estimate the therapeutic outcomes as well as the level of potential negative effects due to secondary toxicity. In this paper, potential solutions to these issues and opportunities in signal and image processing to enhance the potential of such a new type of medical interventions are briefly presented.