Radiotherapy and Oncology
Radiotherapy and Oncology
5 years ago

Tumour auto-contouring on 2d cine MRI for locally advanced lung cancer: A comparative study

Radiotherapy guidance based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is currently becoming a clinical reality. Fast 2d cine MRI sequences are expected to increase the precision of radiation delivery by facilitating tumour delineation during treatment. This study compares four auto-contouring algorithms for the task of delineating the primary tumour in six locally advanced (LA) lung cancer patients. Material and methods Twenty-two cine MRI sequences were acquired using either a balanced steady-state free precession or a spoiled gradient echo imaging technique. Contours derived by the auto-contouring algorithms were compared against manual reference contours. A selection of eight image data sets was also used to assess the inter-observer delineation uncertainty. Results Algorithmically derived contours agreed well with the manual reference contours (median Dice similarity index: ⩾ 0.91 ). Multi-template matching and deformable image registration performed significantly better than feature-driven registration and the pulse-coupled neural network (PCNN). Neither MRI sequence nor image orientation was a conclusive predictor for algorithmic performance. Motion significantly degraded the performance of the PCNN. The inter-observer variability was of the same order of magnitude as the algorithmic performance. Conclusion Auto-contouring of tumours on cine MRI is feasible in LA lung cancer patients. Despite large variations in implementation complexity, the different algorithms all have relatively similar performance.

Publisher URL: www.sciencedirect.com/science

DOI: S016781401732580X

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