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Introduction: Rapid prototype modeling (RPM) has been used in medicine principally for bones - that are easily extracted from CT data sets - for planning orthopaedic, plastic or maxillo-facial interventions, and/or for designing custom prostheses and implants. Based on newly available technology, highly valuable multimodality approaches can now be applied to RPM, particularly for complex musculo-skeletal (MSK) tumors where multimodality often transcends CT alone. Methods: CT data sets are acquired for primary evaluation of MSK tumors in parallel with other modalities (e.g., MR, PET, SPECT). In our approach, CT is first segmented to provide bony anatomy for RPM and all other data sets are then registered to the CT reference. Parametric information relevant to the tumor's characterization is then extracted from the multimodality space and merged with the CT anatomy to produce a hybrid RPM-ready model. This model - that also accommodates digital multimodality visualization - is then produced on the latest generation of 3D printers, which permits both shapes and colors. Results: Multimodality models of complex MSK tumors have been physically produced on modern RPM equipment. This new approach has been found to be a clear improvement over the previously disconnected physical RPM and digital multimodality visualization. Conclusions: New technical developments keep opening doors to sophisticated medical applications that can directly impact the quality of patient care. Although this early work still deals with bones as base models for RPM, its use to encompass soft tissues is already envisioned for future approaches.
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