MIRSIG position paper: the use of image registration and fusion algorithms in radiotherapy

Nicholas Lowther; Rob Louwe; Johnson Yuen; Nicholas Hardcastle; Adam Yeo; Michael Jameson; Medical Image and Registration Special Interest Group (MIRSIG) of the ACPSEM

doi:10.1007/s13246-022-01125-3

MIRSIG position paper: the use of image registration and fusion algorithms in radiotherapy

Phys Eng Sci Med. 2022 Jun;45(2):421-428. doi: 10.1007/s13246-022-01125-3. Epub 2022 May 6.

Authors

Nicholas Lowther¹, Rob Louwe², Johnson Yuen^{3

4

5}, Nicholas Hardcastle^{6

7

8}, Adam Yeo^{6

9}, Michael Jameson^{10

11}; Medical Image and Registration Special Interest Group (MIRSIG) of the ACPSEM

Affiliations

¹ Department of Radiation Oncology, Wellington Blood and Cancer Centre, Wellington, New Zealand.
² Holland Proton Therapy Centre, Delft, Netherlands.
³ St George Hospital Cancer Care Centre, Kogarah, New South Wales, 2217, Australia.
⁴ South Western Clinical School, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
⁵ Ingham Institute for Applied Medical Research, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
⁶ Physical Sciences, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
⁷ Centre for Medical Radiation Physics, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia.
⁸ The Sir Peter MacCallum Department of Oncology, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
⁹ School of Applied Sciences, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
¹⁰ GenesisCare, Sydney, NSW, 2015, Australia. michael.jameson@genesiscare.com.
¹¹ St Vincent's Clinical School, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. michael.jameson@genesiscare.com.

Abstract

The report of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) Task Group No. 132 published in 2017 reviewed rigid image registration and deformable image registration (DIR) approaches and solutions to provide recommendations for quality assurance and quality control of clinical image registration and fusion techniques in radiotherapy. However, that report did not include the use of DIR for advanced applications such as dose warping or warping of other matrices of interest. Considering that DIR warping tools are now readily available, discussions were hosted by the Medical Image Registration Special Interest Group (MIRSIG) of the Australasian College of Physical Scientists & Engineers in Medicine in 2018 to form a consensus on best practice guidelines. This position statement authored by MIRSIG endorses the recommendations of the report of AAPM task group 132 and expands on the best practice advice from the 'Deforming to Best Practice' MIRSIG publication to provide guidelines on the use of DIR for advanced applications.

Keywords: Deformable image registration; Dose warping; Image fusion; Patient-specific verification; Quality assurance.

MeSH terms

Algorithms
Humans
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted* / methods
Radiotherapy Dosage
Radiotherapy Planning, Computer-Assisted* / methods