Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Publication Date

1-1-2023

Journal

Practical Radiation Oncology

Abstract

PURPOSE: This study aimed to use deep learning-based dose prediction to assess head and neck (HN) plan quality and identify suboptimal plans.

METHODS AND MATERIALS: A total of 245 volumetric modulated arc therapy HN plans were created using RapidPlan knowledge-based planning (KBP). A subset of 112 high-quality plans was selected under the supervision of an HN radiation oncologist. We trained a 3D Dense Dilated U-Net architecture to predict 3-dimensional dose distributions using 3-fold cross-validation on 90 plans. Model inputs included computed tomography images, target prescriptions, and contours for targets and organs at risk (OARs). The model's performance was assessed on the remaining 22 test plans. We then tested the application of the dose prediction model for automated review of plan quality. Dose distributions were predicted on 14 clinical plans. The predicted versus clinical OAR dose metrics were compared to flag OARs with suboptimal normal tissue sparing using a 2 Gy dose difference or 3% dose-volume threshold. OAR flags were compared with manual flags by 3 HN radiation oncologists.

RESULTS: The predicted dose distributions were of comparable quality to the KBP plans. The differences between the predicted and KBP-planned D

CONCLUSIONS: Deep learning can predict high-quality dose distributions, which can be used as comparative dose distributions for automated, individualized assessment of HN plan quality.

Keywords

Humans, Radiotherapy Dosage, Deep Learning, Radiotherapy Planning, Computer-Assisted, Organs at Risk, Radiotherapy, Intensity-Modulated

Comments

PMID: 36697347

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.