Automatic delineation of tumor volumes by co-segmentation of combined PET/MR data

Phys Med Biol. 2015 Jul 21;60(14):5399-412. doi: 10.1088/0031-9155/60/14/5399. Epub 2015 Jun 25.

Abstract

Combined PET/MRI may be highly beneficial for radiotherapy treatment planning in terms of tumor delineation and characterization. To standardize tumor volume delineation, an automatic algorithm for the co-segmentation of head and neck (HN) tumors based on PET/MR data was developed. Ten HN patient datasets acquired in a combined PET/MR system were available for this study. The proposed algorithm uses both the anatomical T2-weighted MR and FDG-PET data. For both imaging modalities tumor probability maps were derived, assigning each voxel a probability of being cancerous based on its signal intensity. A combination of these maps was subsequently segmented using a threshold level set algorithm. To validate the method, tumor delineations from three radiation oncologists were available. Inter-observer variabilities and variabilities between the algorithm and each observer were quantified by means of the Dice similarity index and a distance measure. Inter-observer variabilities and variabilities between observers and algorithm were found to be comparable, suggesting that the proposed algorithm is adequate for PET/MR co-segmentation. Moreover, taking into account combined PET/MR data resulted in more consistent tumor delineations compared to MR information only.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms*
  • Head and Neck Neoplasms / diagnostic imaging*
  • Head and Neck Neoplasms / pathology
  • Humans
  • Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / methods*
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging / methods*
  • Observer Variation
  • Positron-Emission Tomography / methods*
  • Tomography, X-Ray Computed / methods
  • Tumor Burden*