  A biopsy is the only diagnostic procedure for accurate histological
confirmation of breast cancer. When sonographic placement is not feasible, a
Magnetic Resonance Imaging(MRI)-guided biopsy is often preferred. The lack of
real-time imaging information and the deformations of the breast make it
challenging to bring the needle precisely towards the tumour detected in
pre-interventional Magnetic Resonance (MR) images. The current manual
MRI-guided biopsy workflow is inaccurate and would benefit from a technique
that allows real-time tracking and localisation of the tumour lesion during
needle insertion. This paper proposes a robotic setup and software architecture
to assist the radiologist in targeting MR-detected suspicious tumours. The
approach benefits from image fusion of preoperative images with intraoperative
optical tracking of markers attached to the patient's skin. A hand-mounted
biopsy device has been constructed with an actuated needle base to drive the
tip toward the desired direction. The steering commands may be provided both by
user input and by computer guidance. The workflow is validated through phantom
experiments. On average, the suspicious breast lesion is targeted with a radius
down to 2.3 mm. The results suggest that robotic systems taking into account
breast deformations have the potentials to tackle this clinical challenge.
