Publications

@article{Gaston2025-fb,

title = {Challenges in the diagnosis of biliary stricture and  cholangiocarcinoma and perspectives on the future applications  of advanced technologies},

author = {Kevin Gaston and Abdelkhalick Mohammad and Suresh Vasan Venkatachalapathy and Ioan Notingher and George S D Gordon and Arvind Arora and Frankie J Rawson and Jane I Grove and Abhik Mukherjee and Dhanny Gomez and Padma-Sheela Jayaraman and Guruprasad P Aithal},

doi = {10.3390/cancers17142301},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-07-01},

urldate = {2025-07-01},

journal = {Cancers (Basel)},

volume = {17},

number = {14},

pages = {2301},

publisher = {MDPI AG},

abstract = {In the management of cholangiocarcinoma, effective biliary 

 drainage and accurate diagnosis are vital to allow further 

 treatment. Confirmation of tissue diagnosis and molecular 

 characterization is also required to guide future treatment 

 options including surgery and chemotherapy as well as the 

 possible use of personalized treatments that target specific 

 mutations present within individual tumours. Initial CT or MRI 

 scans may be followed by endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) or 

 endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) to obtain 

 tissue samples. However, these methods often fall short due to 

 difficulty in accessing entire bile duct strictures. SpyGlass 

 cholangioscopy can improve diagnosis, yet may fail to provide 

 sufficient tissue for molecular characterization. Here we 

 present a perspective on the development of snake-like agile 

 robots with integrated optical imaging and Raman spectroscopy. 

 These robots could improve the mapping of the biliary tree and 

 the precision of biopsy collection and allow tissue analysis in 

 situ, as well as facilitating stenting to restore the flow of 

 bile. A multidisciplinary approach that brings together 

 clinicians, pathologists, and engineers is required to develop 

 these new robotic technologies and improve patient outcomes.},

keywords = {bile duct, Cholangiocarcinoma, cholestasis, liver cancer, robotics},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}