Doshi T, Wilson C, Paterson C, Lamb C, James A, MacKenzie K, Soraghan J, Petropoulakis L, Di Caterina G, Grose D
Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK.
Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre, Glasgow, UK.
Clin Oncol (R Coll Radiol). 2017 Jan;29(1):60-67. doi: 10.1016/j.clon.2016.09.016. Epub 2016 Oct 22.
To carry out statistical validation of a newly developed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) auto-contouring software tool for gross tumour volume (GTV) delineation in head and neck tumours to assist in radiotherapy planning.
Axial MRI baseline scans were obtained for 10 oropharyngeal and laryngeal cancer patients. GTV was present on 102 axial slices and auto-contoured using the modified fuzzy c-means clustering integrated with the level set method (FCLSM). Peer-reviewed (C-gold) manual contours were used as the reference standard to validate auto-contoured GTVs (C-auto) and mean manual contours (C-manual) from two expert clinicians (C1 and C2). Multiple geometric metrics, including the Dice similarity coefficient (DSC), were used for quantitative validation. A DSC≥0.7 was deemed acceptable. Inter- and intra-variabilities among the manual contours were also validated. The two-dimensional contours were then reconstructed in three dimensions for GTV volume calculation, comparison and three-dimensional visualisation.
The mean DSC between C-gold and C-auto was 0.79. The mean DSC between C-gold and C-manual was 0.79 and that between C1 and C2 was 0.80. The average time for GTV auto-contouring per patient was 8 min (range 6-13 min; mean 45 s per axial slice) compared with 15 min (range 6-23 min; mean 88 s per axial slice) for C1. The average volume concordance between C-gold and C-auto volumes was 86.51% compared with 74.16% between C-gold and C-manual. The average volume concordance between C1 and C2 volumes was 86.82%.
This newly designed MRI-based auto-contouring software tool shows initial acceptable results in GTV delineation of oropharyngeal and laryngeal tumours using FCLSM. This auto-contouring software tool may help reduce inter- and intra-variability and can assist clinical oncologists with time-consuming, complex radiotherapy planning.
对一种新开发的用于头颈部肿瘤大体肿瘤体积（GTV）勾画的磁共振成像（MRI）自动轮廓勾画软件工具进行统计验证，以辅助放射治疗计划制定。
获取了10名头颈部口咽癌和喉癌患者的轴向MRI基线扫描图像。在102个轴位切片上存在GTV，并使用与水平集方法相结合的改进模糊c均值聚类（FCLSM）进行自动轮廓勾画。经过同行评审（C级金标准）的手动轮廓用作参考标准，以验证两名专家临床医生（C1和C2）的自动轮廓勾画GTV（C自动）和平均手动轮廓（C手动）。使用包括骰子相似系数（DSC）在内的多个几何指标进行定量验证。DSC≥0.7被认为是可接受的。还验证了手动轮廓之间的组间和组内变异性。然后将二维轮廓重建为三维，以进行GTV体积计算、比较和三维可视化。
C级金标准与C自动之间的平均DSC为0.79。C级金标准与C手动之间的平均DSC为0.79，C1和C2之间的平均DSC为0.80。每位患者GTV自动轮廓勾画的平均时间为8分钟（范围6 - 13分钟；每轴位切片平均45秒），而C1为15分钟（范围6 - 23分钟；每轴位切片平均88秒）。C级金标准与C自动体积之间的平均体积一致性为86.51%，C级金标准与C手动之间为74.16%。C1和C2体积之间的平均体积一致性为86.82%。
这种新设计的基于MRI的自动轮廓勾画软件工具在使用FCLSM对头颈部口咽和喉肿瘤的GTV勾画中显示出初步可接受的结果。这种自动轮廓勾画软件工具可能有助于减少组间和组内变异性，并可协助临床肿瘤学家进行耗时、复杂的放射治疗计划制定。
