Deep convolutional neural networks for automatic segmentation of thoracic organs-at-risk in radiation oncology - use of non-domain transfer learning.

Authors

Charles C Vu, Beaumont Health
Zaid A Siddiqui, Beaumont Health
Leonid Zamdborg, Beaumont Health
Andrew B Thompson, Beaumont Health
Thomas J Quinn, Beaumont Health
Edward Castillo, Beaumont Health
Thomas M Guerrero, Beaumont Health

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-1-2020

Publication Title

Journal of applied clinical medical physics [electronic resource] / American College of Medical Physics

Abstract

PURPOSE: Segmentation of organs-at-risk (OARs) is an essential component of the radiation oncology workflow. Commonly segmented thoracic OARs include the heart, esophagus, spinal cord, and lungs. This study evaluated a convolutional neural network (CNN) for automatic segmentation of these OARs.

METHODS: The dataset was created retrospectively from consecutive radiotherapy plans containing all five OARs of interest, including 22,411 CT slices from 168 patients. Patients were divided into training, validation, and test datasets according to a 66%/17%/17% split. We trained a modified U-Net, applying transfer learning from a VGG16 image classification model trained on ImageNet. The Dice coefficient and 95% Hausdorff distance on the test set for each organ was compared to a commercial atlas-based segmentation model using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test.

RESULTS: On the test dataset, the median Dice coefficients for the CNN model vs. the multi-atlas model were 71% vs. 67% for the spinal cord, 96% vs. 94% for the right lung, 96%vs. 94% for the left lung, 91% vs. 85% for the heart, and 63% vs. 37% for the esophagus. The median 95% Hausdorff distances were 9.5 mm vs. 25.3 mm, 5.1 mm vs. 8.1 mm, 4.0 mm vs. 8.0 mm, 9.8 mm vs. 15.8 mm, and 9.2 mm vs. 20.0 mm for the respective organs. The results all favored the CNN model (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS: A 2D CNN can achieve superior results to commercial atlas-based software for OAR segmentation utilizing non-domain transfer learning, which has potential utility for quality assurance and expediting patient care.

Volume

21

Issue

6

First Page

108

Last Page

113

Recommended Citation

Vu CC, Siddiqui ZA, Zamdborg L, Thompson AB, Quinn TJ, Castillo E, Guerrero TM. Deep convolutional neural networks for automatic segmentation of thoracic organs-at-risk in radiation oncology - use of non-domain transfer learning. J Appl Clin Med Phys. 2020 Jun;21(6):108-113. doi: 10.1002/acm2.12871. PMID: 32602187; PMCID: PMC7324695.

DOI

10.1002/acm2.12871

ISSN

1526-9914

PubMed ID

32602187