  German text, english abstract: Mortality in gynecologic cancers, including
cervical, ovarian, vaginal and vulvar cancers, is more than 6% internationally
[1]. In many countries external radiotherapy is supplemented by brachytherapy
with high locally administered doses as standard. The superior ability of
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to differentiate soft tissue has led to an
increasing use of this imaging technique in the intraoperative planning and
implementation of brachytherapy. A technical challenge associated with the use
of MRI imaging for brachytherapy - in contrast to computed tomography (CT)
imaging - is the dark-diffuse appearance and thus difficult identification of
the catheter paths in the resulting images. This problem is addressed by the
precise method described herein of tracing the catheters from the catheter tip.
The average identification time for a single catheter path was three seconds on
a standard PC. Segmentation time, accuracy and precision are promising
indicators of the value of this method for the clinical application of
image-guided gynecological brachytherapy. After surgery (OP), the healthy
surrounding tissue of the tumor is usually irradiated. This reduces the risk of
leaving behind residual cells that would likely cause a recurrence of the
cancer or the formation of metastases - secondary tumors elsewhere in the body.
In the case of a tumor on the cervix or prostate, the operation is minimally
invasive, ie. the removal of the cancer and the irradiation are performed
cost-effectively and risk-avoiding by keyhole surgery instead of open surgery.
