Feasibility of two‐dimensional dose distribution deconvolution using convolution neural networks

• Published in: Medical physics (Lancaster) 2019-12, Vol.46 (12), p.5833-5847
• Main Authors: Cheon, Wonjoong, Kim, Sung Jin, Kim, Kyuseok, Lee, Moonhee, Lee, Jinhyeop, Jo, Kwanghyun, Cho, Sungkoo, Cho, Hyosung, Han, Youngyih
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: convolution neural network; deconvolution; Feasibility Studies; Humans; Neural Networks, Computer; Radiation Dosage; Radiometry; Radiotherapy Dosage; Radiotherapy Planning, Computer-Assisted - methods; Radiotherapy, Intensity-Modulated; scintillation detector
• ISSN: 0094-2405; 2473-4209
• DOI: 10.1002/mp.13869

Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate the feasibility of two‐dimensional (2D) dose distribution deconvolution using convolutional neural networks (CNNs) instead of an analytical approach for an in‐house scintillation detector that has a detector‐interface artifact in the penumbra region. Methods Datasets of 2D dose distributions were acquired from a medical linear accelerator of Novalis Tx. The datasets comprise two different sizes of square radiation fields and 13 clinical intensity‐modulated radiation treatment (IMRT) plans. These datasets were divided into two datasets (training and test) to train and validate the developed network, called PenumbraNet, which is a shallow linear CNN. The PenumbraNet was trained to transform the measured dose distribution [M(x, y)] to calculated distribution [D(x, y)] by the treatment planning system. After training of the PenumbraNet was completed, the performance was evaluated using test data, which were 10 × 10 cm2 open field and ten clinical IMRT cases. The corrected dose distribution [C(x, y)] was evaluated against D(x, y) with 2%/2 mm and 3%/3 mm criteria of the gamma index for each field. The M(x, y) and deconvolved dose distribution with the analytically obtained kernel using Wiener filtering [A(x, y)] were also evaluated for comparison. In addition, we compared the performance of the shallow depth of linear PenumbraNet with that of nonlinear PenumbraNet and a deep nonlinear PenumbraNet within the same training epoch. Results The mean gamma passing rates were 84.77% and 95.81% with 3%/3 mm gamma criteria for A(x, y) and C(x, y) of the PenumbraNet, respectively. The mean gamma pass rates of nonlinear PenumbraNet and the deep depth of nonlinear PenumbraNet were 96.62%, 93.42% with 3%/3 mm gamma criteria, respectively. Conclusions We demonstrated the feasibility of the PenumbraNets for 2D dose distribution deconvolution. The nonlinear PenumbraNet which has the best performance improved the gamma passing rate by 11.85% from the M(x, y) at 3%/3 mm gamma criteria.