Prior information guided deep-learning model for tumor bed segmentation in breast cancer radiotherapy

Tumor bed (TB) is the residual cavity of resected tumor after surgery. Delineating TB from CT is crucial in generating clinical target volume for radiotherapy. Due to multiple surgical effects and low image contrast, segmenting TB from soft tissue is challenging. In clinical practice, titanium clips were used as marks to guide the searching of TB. However, this information is limited and may cause large error. To provide more prior location information, the tumor regions on both pre-operative and post-operative CTs are both used by the deep learning model in segmenting TB from surrounding tissues.

For breast cancer patient after surgery and going to be treated by radiotherapy, it is important to delineate the target volume for treatment planning. In clinical practice, the target volume is usually generated from TB by adding a certain margin. Therefore, it is crucial to identify TB from soft tissue. To facilitate this process, a deep learning model is developed to segment TB from CT with the guidance of prior tumor location. Initially, the tumor contour on the pre-operative CT is delineated by physician for surgical planning purpose. Then this contour is transformed to the post-operative CT via the deformable image registration between paired pre-operative and post-operative CTs. The original and transformed tumor regions are both used as inputs for predicting the possible region of TB by the deep-learning model.

Compared to the one without prior tumor contour information, the dice similarity coefficient of the deep-learning model with the prior tumor contour information is improved significantly (0.812 vs. 0.520, P = 0.001). Compared to the traditional gray-level thresholding method, the dice similarity coefficient of the deep-learning model with the prior tumor contour information is improved significantly (0.812 vs.0.633, P = 0.0005).

The prior tumor contours on both pre-operative and post-operative CTs provide valuable information in searching for the precise location of TB on post-operative CT. The proposed method provided a feasible way to assist auto-segmentation of TB in treatment planning of radiotherapy after breast-conserving surgery.