The proposed K25 career development award will allow the candidate to become an independent and successful researcher in the emerging multidisciplinary biomedical computing area armed with a unique set of knowledge and breadth of experience both in computational and biomedical sciences. The University of Iowa with a well-rooted multidisciplinary culture, has newly established the Center of Excellence in Image-Guided Radiation Therapy, a world-class radiation therapy facility. In this excellent environment, the candidate, having a joint appointment at Departments of Electrical &Computer Engineering and Radiation Oncology, will develop his research career through (i) taking courses in radiation therapy and medical imaging;(ii) presenting research results at the most pertinent medical and computer science conferences;(iii) attending research group meetings and clinical evaluation and planning meetings at the Center. The research project of the candidate is to develop novel algorithms, methods, and software tools that make use of the latest advances in computer science and medical imaging for accurate target definition and motion tracking, thus improving the treatment effectiveness of Intensity-Modulate Radiation Therapy (IMRT). Target delineation and intra-fraction organ motion are two major sources that compromise the treatment effectiveness of IMRT. The computational feasibility is accomplished by formulating the target delineation and motion tracking problems as computing an optimal closed set in a weighted directed graph. The novel features of our method will be designed with a continuing focus on the global optimality of the solution. We hypothesize that advanced graph algorithmic and geometric techniques enable accurate target delineation and precise tracking of internal tumor/organ motion, thus improving IMRT effectiveness.
The specific aims of the proposed research are as follows: 1) Develop and validate a method for the optimal delineation of single and multiple interacting surfaces in volumetric image data;surfaces with terrain-like, tubular, and closed shapes as well as those with complex topologies will be included. 2) Develop and validate a method for tracking optimal organ motion over the treatment course using 4-D image data. 3) Develop and validate a method for accurate tissue voxel mapping which enables to transfer a 3-D treatment plan at one motion phase to all other phases to form a 4-D treatment plan. Public Health Relevance: We expect the clinical applications of the proposed approaches will have a measurable improvement on IMRT treatment effectiveness, leading to a better local tumor control and a significant increase of cancer survival rate.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Type
Mentored Quantitative Research Career Development Award (K25)
Project #
5K25CA123112-03
Application #
7625151
Study Section
Subcommittee G - Education (NCI)
Program Officer
Jakowlew, Sonia B
Project Start
2007-07-19
Project End
2012-06-30
Budget Start
2009-07-01
Budget End
2010-06-30
Support Year
3
Fiscal Year
2009
Total Cost
$146,070
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Iowa
Department
Radiation-Diagnostic/Oncology
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
062761671
City
Iowa City
State
IA
Country
United States
Zip Code
52242
Song, Qi; Bai, Junjie; Han, Dongfeng et al. (2013) Optimal co-segmentation of tumor in PET-CT images with context information. IEEE Trans Med Imaging 32:1685-97
Song, Qi; Bai, Junjie; Garvin, Mona K et al. (2013) Optimal multiple surface segmentation with shape and context priors. IEEE Trans Med Imaging 32:376-86
Wu, Xiaodong; Dou, Xin; Bayouth, John E et al. (2013) An Almost Linear Time Algorithm for Field Splitting in Radiation Therapy. Comput Geom 46:673-687
Liu, Yunlong; Flynn, Ryan T; Kim, Yusung et al. (2013) Dynamic rotating-shield brachytherapy. Med Phys 40:121703
Liu, Yunlong; Flynn, Ryan T; Yang, Wenjun et al. (2013) Rapid emission angle selection for rotating-shield brachytherapy. Med Phys 40:051720
Liu, Xiaomin; Chen, Danny Z; Tawhai, Merryn H et al. (2013) Optimal graph search based segmentation of airway tree double surfaces across bifurcations. IEEE Trans Med Imaging 32:493-510
Dou, Xin; Kim, Yusung; Bayouth, John E et al. (2013) Optimal field-splitting algorithm in intensity-modulated radiotherapy: evaluations using head-and-neck and female pelvic IMRT cases. Med Dosim 38:12-7
Xu, Lei; Stojkovic, Branislav; Zhu, Yongding et al. (2011) Efficient Algorithms for Segmenting Globally Optimal and Smooth Multi-Surfaces. Lect Notes Comput Sci 6801:208-220
Wu, Xiaodong; Dou, Xin; Wahle, Andreas et al. (2011) Region detection by minimizing intraclass variance with geometric constraints, global optimality, and efficient approximation. IEEE Trans Med Imaging 30:814-27
Xu, Lei; Stojkovic, Branislav; Zhu, Yongding et al. (2011) Efficient algorithms for segmenting globally optimal and smooth multi-surfaces. Inf Process Med Imaging 22:208-20

Showing the most recent 10 out of 19 publications