Patient-specific daily updated deep learning auto-segmentation for MRI-guided adaptive radiotherapy

Abstract

Background and purposeDeep Learning (DL) technique has shown great potential but still has limited success in online contouring for MR-guided adaptive radiotherapy (MRgART). This study proposed a patient-specific DL auto-segmentation (DLAS) strategy using the patient’s previous images and contours to update the model and improve segmentation accuracy and efficiency for MRgART. Methods and materialsA prototype model was trained for each patient using the first set of MRI and corresponding contours as inputs. The patient-specific model was updated after each fraction with all the available fractional MRIs/contours, and then used to predict the segmentation for the next fraction. During model training, a variant was fitted under consistency constraints, limiting the differences in the volume, length and centroid between the predictions for the latest MRI within a reasonable range. The model performance was evaluated for both organ-at-risks and tumors auto-segmentation for a total of 6 abdominal/pelvic cases (each with at least 8 sets of MRIs/contours) underwent MRgART through Dice Similarity Coefficient (DSC) and 95% Hausdorff Distance (HD95), and was compared with deformable image registration (DIR) and frozen DL model (no updating after pre-training). The contouring time was also recorded and analyzed. ResultsThe proposed model achieved superior performance with higher mean DSC (0.90, 95 % CI: 0.88–0.95), as compared to DIR (0.63, 95 %CI: 0.59–0.68) and frozen DL models (0.74, 95 % CI: 0.71–0.79). As for tumors, the proposed method yielded a median DSC of 0.95, 95 % CI: 0.94–0.97, and a median HD95 of 1.63 mm, 95 % CI: 1.22 mm-2.06 mm. The contouring time was reduced significantly (p < 0.05) using the proposed method (73.4 ± 6.5 secs) compared to the manual process (12 ∼ 22 mins). The online ART time was reduced to 1650 ± 274 seconds with the proposed method, as compared to 3251.8 ± 447 seconds using the original workflow. ConclusionThe proposed patient-specific DLAS method can significantly improve the segmentation accuracy and efficiency for longitudinal MRIs, thereby facilitating the routine practice of MRgART.