Research program
Research & Publications
hapchot was developed within the MONC research team at INRIA in collaboration with CNRS and Hôpital Avicenne (APHP). The scientific foundation addresses a specific, well-defined clinical gap: there is no validated, patient-specific method for predicting the ablation zone during percutaneous tumor ablation before treatment is triggered.
Peer-Reviewed Publications
Physics in Medicine and Biology, 64(5):055016 — 2019
Gallinato O., de Senneville B.D., Seror O., Poignard C.
“Numerical workflow of irreversible electroporation for deep-seated tumor.”
Numerical workflow combining simulation, image registration, and clinical data to compute the electric field distribution as effectively delivered during an IRE procedure for deep-seated liver tumors.
DOI: 10.1088/1361-6560/ab00c4Computerized Medical Imaging and Graphics, Vol. 84, article 101750 — 2020
Lafitte L., Giraud R., Zachiu C., Ries M., Sutter O., Petit A., Seror O., Poignard C., de Senneville B.D.
“Patch-based field-of-view matching in multi-modal images for electroporation-based ablations.”
New fast method using a 3D modified PatchMatch algorithm to align the field-of-view across imaging modalities in multi-modal 3D medical images, applied to IRE ablation of liver tumors.
DOI: 10.1016/j.compmedimag.2020.101750IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, Vol. 71 — 2024
Sutter O., Voyer D., Poignard C.
“How impedance measurements and imaging can be used to characterize the conductivity of tissues during the workflow of an electroporation-based therapy.”
Proposes exploiting voltage/current measurements and imaging acquired prior to electroporation pulses to characterize patient-specific tissue electrical conductivity — an approach based on electrical impedance tomography adapted to the limited electrode count available in clinical IRE.
DOI: 10.1109/TBME.2023.3336193Physics in Medicine and Biology, Vol. 70, No. 22 — 2025
Sutter O. et al.
“Correlation between computed electric dose maps and early post-operative MRI for the evaluation of irreversible electroporation.”
Study of 42 HCC patients who underwent IRE at Hôpital Avicenne. Correlated computed electric dose maps with early post-operative MRI acquired within 3 days of the procedure. Defined dedicated metrics across multiple isodose threshold levels to quantify the predictive accuracy of numerical dosimetry.
DOI: 10.1088/1361-6560/ae1802European Radiology — 2025
Sutter O., Petit A., Molango T., Pescatori L.-C., Lafitte L., de Senneville B.D., Seror O. et al.
“Toward perioperative, numerically assisted irreversible electroporation for hepatocellular carcinoma: clinical outcomes informed by numerical simulations.”
Retrospective study correlating numerical simulations of IRE with clinical outcomes in HCC. An electric field threshold of 400 V/cm discriminated between local treatment failure and success, with statistically significant differences in tumor coverage.
DOI: 10.1007/s00330-025-12223-7Also presented at
- World Congress of Electroporation 2024, Rome
- Journées Françaises de Radiologie 2024, Paris
Research Partners
INRIA — Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique
MONC team (Modélisation Mathématique pour l'Oncologie). Core research partnership; the numerical simulation methods underlying hapchot were developed within this team.
CNRS — Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Institut de Mathématiques de Bordeaux (IMB, UMR 5251) and Institut de Mathématiques de Bordeaux, Université de Bordeaux.
Hôpital Avicenne, APHP
Interventional Radiology Unit. Clinical partner for IRE studies. Pr. Olivier Seror (Head of Interventional Radiology) and Dr. Olivier Sutter (Interventional Radiologist) are co-investigators on published studies.
CHU Poitiers
Early tester of the hapchot software.
Gustave Roussy
Cancer research and treatment center partner.
Université Sorbonne Paris Nord
Academic partner.
Further Reading
For background on the clinical problem hapchot addresses, these publications are directly cited in our research:
- [2]Stättner S. et al. “Ablative margins in percutaneous thermal ablation of hepatic tumors: a systematic review.” Expert Review of Anticancer Therapy, 2023.
- [3]Charalel R. et al. “Short-Term Out-of-Pocket and Total Costs of Care After Ablation, Resection, or Transplant for Early-Stage Hepatocellular Carcinoma: A National SEER-Medicare Cost Comparison.” AJR, vol. 223, 2024.
- [4]Paolucci I. et al. “International multisociety Delphi consensus for liver tumour thermal ablation: margin assessment.” Lancet Oncology, 2026. Endorsed by ESSE, CIRSE, and SIO; 72-expert Delphi consensus across 4 continents.
- [5]Laimer G. et al. “International multisociety Delphi consensus for liver tumour thermal ablation: procedural and practice standards.” Lancet Oncology, 2026.
Collaborate with us
We are actively seeking clinical research partners — academic interventional radiology units with active IRE, RFA, or MWA programs and access to paired pre- and post-procedural imaging datasets.