The geometric and dosimetric effect of algorithm choice on propagated contours from CT to cone beam CTs

•Comparison of 5 commercially available software packages for head and neck contour propagation.•Geometric and dosimetric comparison against two gold standards (clinician, STAPLE)•Geometric differences were seen for manual but not STAPLE gold standard.•DVH parameters were consistent for most contour...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physica medica 2022-08, Vol.100, p.112-119
Main Authors: Nash, David, Juneja, Shagun, Palmer, Antony L, van Herk, Marcel, McWilliam, Alan, Osorio, Eliana Vasquez
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adaptive radiotherapy
Contour propagation
Deformable image registration
Head and neck cancer
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Summary:•Comparison of 5 commercially available software packages for head and neck contour propagation.•Geometric and dosimetric comparison against two gold standards (clinician, STAPLE)•Geometric differences were seen for manual but not STAPLE gold standard.•DVH parameters were consistent for most contours (ICC > 0.75)•Large differences in geometric metrics rarely had an impact on DVH parameters. Adaptive radiotherapy relies of rapid re-contouring, online more so than offline. Intra-patient contour propagation via non-rigid registration offers a solution but can be of limited accuracy. However, the dosimetric significance of the inaccuracies is unknown. Here we evaluate the dosimetric reliability of contours generated by different commercially-available software packages. Planning CT contours for ten head and neck cancer patients were propagated via five commercial packages to five CBCT scans acquired throughout treatment. The treatment plan was recalculated on each of the CBCTs for each set of propagated contours, and DVH parameters extracted for the spinal cord, brainstem, parotids and larynx. The propagated contours were compared to two gold standard contours: contours manually outlined and a consensus STAPLE contours generated from the propagated contours. Geometrical similarity was evaluated using mean distance to agreement (mDTA), Hausdorff distance, centroid agreement and Dice similarity coefficient. Dosimetric reliability was assessed against clinical constraints and comparing via the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). All propagated contours were similar to the STAPLE (mDTA 
ISSN:1120-1797
1724-191X
DOI:10.1016/j.ejmp.2022.06.015