Abstract
In this study, we proposed a semi-automated and interactive scheme for organ contouring in radiotherapy planning for patients with non-small cell lung cancers. Several organs were contoured, including the lungs, airway, heart, spinal cord, body, and gross tumor volume (GTV). We proposed some schemes to automatically generate and vanish the seeds of the random walks (RW) algorithm. We considered 25 lung cancer patients, whose computed tomography (CT) images were obtained from the China Medical University Hospital (CMUH) in Taichung, Taiwan. The manual contours made by clinical oncologists were taken as the gold standard for comparison to evaluate the performance of our proposed method. The Dice coefficient between two contours of the same organ was computed to evaluate the similarity. The average Dice coefficients for the lungs, airway, heart, spinal cord, and body and GTV segmentation were 0.92, 0.84, 0.83, 0.73, 0.85 and 0.66, respectively. The computation time was between 2 to 4 min for a whole CT sequence segmentation. The results showed that our method has the potential to assist oncologists in the process of radiotherapy treatment in the CMUH, and hopefully in other hospitals as well, by saving a tremendous amount of time in contouring.
Highlights
Radiotherapy is often used as the main treatment for lung cancer
We considered 25 patients with non-small cell lung cancers, whose computed tomography (CT) images were obtained from the China Medical University Hospital
We developed a reliable software system which was able to segment five normal categories, including the lungs, airway, spinal cord, body, and heart, with an interactive function
Summary
Radiotherapy is often used as the main treatment for lung cancer. Some patients with lung cancer might choose to receive radiotherapy [1]. Others might choose radiotherapy after surgery, or after chemotherapy. Radiotherapy uses high-energy radiation to kill tumor cells. Radiation can destroy tumor cells, and normal tissues during treatment. A Radiotherapy Treatment Plan (RTTP), which is used to distinguish tumors from normal organs, needs to be designed before radiation is carried out. An RTTP will simulate the dose distribution of the organs which may take radiation during radiotherapy [2]. Needless to say, this therapy planning is crucial. Oncologists in the Chinese Medical University Hospital (CMUH) are required to perform
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
