TU‐A‐19A‐01: Image Registration I: Deformable Image Registration, Contour Propagation and Dose Mapping: 101 and 201

Abstract

Deformable image registration, contour propagation and dose mapping have become common, possibly essential tools for modern image‐guided radiation therapy. Historically, these tools have been largely developed at academic medical centers and used in a rather limited and well controlled fashion. Today these tools are now available to the radiotherapy community at large, both as stand‐alone applications and as integrated components of both treatment planning and treatment delivery systems. Unfortunately, the details of how these tools work and their limitations are not generally documented or described by the vendors that provide them. Although “it looks right”, determining that unphysical deformations may have occurred is crucial. Because of this, understanding how and when to use, and not use these tools to support everyday clinical decisions is far from straight forward.The goal of this session will be to present both the theory (basic and advanced) and practical clinical use of deformable image registration, contour propagation and dose mapping. To the extent possible, the “secret sauce” that different vendor use to produce reasonable/acceptable results will be described. A detailed explanation of the possible sources of errors and actual examples of these will be presented. Knowing the underlying principles of the process and understanding the confounding factors will help the practicing medical physicist be better able to make decisions (about making decisions) using these tools available.Learning Objectives: Understand the basic (101) and advanced (201) principles of deformable image registration, contour propagation and dose mapping data mapping. Understand the sources and impact of errors in registration and data mapping and the methods for evaluating the performance of these tools. Understand the clinical use and value of these tools, especially when used as a “black box”.