Sun Shuai, Gong Xinyue, Cheng Songyang, Cao Ran, He Shumeng, Liang Yongguang, Yang Bo, Qiu Jie, Zhang Fuquan, Hu Ke
Department of Radiation Oncology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
Department of Radiation Oncology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China; Eight-Year Program of Clinical Medicine, Peking Union Medical College, Chinese Academy of Medical Science & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2025 Jul 15;122(4):1012-1021. doi: 10.1016/j.ijrobp.2025.04.012. Epub 2025 Apr 17.
BACKGROUND: Interfraction variations during radiation therapy pose a challenge for patients with cervical cancer, highlighting the benefits of online adaptive radiation therapy (oART). However, adaptation decisions rely on subjective image reviews by physicians, leading to high interobserver variability and inefficiency. This study explores the feasibility of using artificial intelligence for decision-making in oART. METHODS AND MATERIALS: A total of 24 patients with cervical cancer who underwent 671 fractions of daily fan-beam computed tomography (FBCT) guided oART were included in this study, with each fraction consisting of a daily FBCT image series and a pair of scheduled and adaptive plans. Dose deviations of scheduled plans exceeding predefined criteria were labeled as "trigger," otherwise as "nontrigger." A data set comprising 588 fractions from 21 patients was used for model development. For the machine learning model (ML), 101 morphologic, gray-level, and dosimetric features were extracted, with feature selection by the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) and classification by support vector machine (SVM). For deep learning, a Siamese network approach was used: the deep learning model of contour (DL_C) used only imaging data and contours, whereas a deep learning model of contour and dose (DL_D) also incorporated dosimetric data. A 5-fold cross-validation strategy was employed for model training and testing, and model performance was evaluated using the area under the curve (AUC), accuracy, precision, and recall. An independent data set comprising 83 fractions from 3 patients was used for model evaluation, with predictions compared against trigger labels assigned by 3 experienced radiation oncologists. RESULTS: Based on dosimetric labels, the 671 fractions were classified into 492 trigger and 179 nontrigger cases. The ML model selected 39 key features, primarily reflecting morphologic and gray-level changes in the clinical target volume (CTV) of the uterus (CTV_U), the CTV of the cervix, vagina, and parametrial tissues (CTV_C), and the small intestine. It achieved an AUC of 0.884, with accuracy, precision, and recall of 0.825, 0.824, and 0.827, respectively. The DL_C model demonstrated superior performance with an AUC of 0.917, accuracy of 0.869, precision of 0.860, and recall of 0.881. The DL_D model, which incorporated additional dosimetric data, exhibited a slight decline in performance compared with DL_C. Heatmap analyses indicated that for trigger fractions, the deep learning models focused on regions where the reference CT's CTV_U did not fully encompass the daily FBCT's CTV_U. Evaluation on an independent data set confirmed the robustness of all models. The weighted model's prediction accuracy significantly outperformed the physician consensus (0.855 vs 0.795), with comparable precision (0.917 vs 0.925) but substantially higher recall (0.887 vs 0.790). CONCLUSION: This study proposes machine learning and deep learning models to identify treatment fractions that may benefit from adaptive replanning in radical radiation therapy for cervical cancer, providing a promising decision-support tool to assist clinicians in determining when to trigger the oART workflow during treatment.
背景:放射治疗期间的分次间变化给宫颈癌患者带来了挑战,凸显了在线自适应放射治疗(oART)的益处。然而,适应决策依赖于医生的主观图像审查,导致观察者间差异大且效率低下。本研究探讨了在oART中使用人工智能进行决策的可行性。 方法和材料:本研究纳入了24例接受671次每日扇形束计算机断层扫描(FBCT)引导的oART的宫颈癌患者,每次分次包括每日FBCT图像系列以及一对计划计划和自适应计划。计划计划的剂量偏差超过预定义标准被标记为“触发”,否则为“非触发”。一个包含来自21例患者的588次分次的数据集用于模型开发。对于机器学习模型(ML),提取了101个形态学、灰度级和剂量学特征,通过最小绝对收缩和选择算子(LASSO)进行特征选择,并通过支持向量机(SVM)进行分类。对于深度学习,使用了连体网络方法:轮廓深度学习模型(DL_C)仅使用成像数据和轮廓,而轮廓和剂量深度学习模型(DL_D)还纳入了剂量学数据。采用5折交叉验证策略进行模型训练和测试,并使用曲线下面积(AUC)、准确性、精确性和召回率评估模型性能。一个包含来自3例患者的83次分次的独立数据集用于模型评估,将预测结果与3名经验丰富的放射肿瘤学家指定的触发标签进行比较。 结果:基于剂量学标签,671次分次被分类为492例触发和179例非触发病例。ML模型选择了39个关键特征,主要反映子宫临床靶区(CTV_U)、宫颈、阴道和宫旁组织的CTV(CTV_C)以及小肠的形态学和灰度级变化。其AUC为0.884,准确性、精确性和召回率分别为0.825、0.824和0.827。DL_C模型表现出卓越性能,AUC为0.917,准确性为0.869,精确性为0.860,召回率为0.881。纳入额外剂量学数据的DL_D模型与DL_C相比性能略有下降。热图分析表明,对于触发分次,深度学习模型关注参考CT的CTV_U未完全涵盖每日FBCT的CTV_U的区域。在独立数据集上的评估证实了所有模型的稳健性。加权模型的预测准确性显著优于医生共识(0.855对0.795),精确性相当(0.917对0.925),但召回率大幅更高(0.887对0.790)。 结论:本研究提出了机器学习和深度学习模型,以识别在宫颈癌根治性放射治疗中可能从自适应重新计划中获益的治疗分次,提供了一个有前景的决策支持工具,以协助临床医生在治疗期间确定何时触发oART工作流程。
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