Safely escalating the radiation dose to locally-advanced non-small cell lung cancer patients to improve local tumor control and survival remains a challenge due to the numerous types and large magnitude of day-to-day geometric change in these patients. Deformable image registration (DIR) has emerged as a powerful tool for day-to-day mapping of target and risk structures and assessing the cumulative delivered dose to guide adaptation of the treatment plan to mitigate geometric changes. However, change in tissue and organ character - tissue formation, disintegration, and change of tissue condition between healthy and diseased - during the treatment course violates the fundamental principles upon which current DIR algorithms are based. Tissue character changes are common in lung cancer, due to primary tumor and involved lymph node mass changes in response to therapy and formation, resolution, or progression of partially collapsed lung, pleural fluid, and other associated pathologies. Tissue character changes are the type of geometric change most susceptible to delivery errors, the most likely to benefit from plan adaptation, and the most common site of failure of current DIR algorithms. Consequently, failure of DIR introduces error into the adaptive radiotherapy process, limiting the ability to safely escalate the radiation dose. We propose to develop and evaluate a new type of DIR algorithm designed to perform accurately under the difficult conditions of tumor and lung tissue character change. The algorithm is specifically designed to identify and register regions of anatomy consistent in shape and tissue character from day to day, while ignoring regions of variable character (such as collapsed lung and tumor) in the registration, and reconstructing deformation in the pathological regions using the measured deformation of the adjacent, consistent anatomical features. The project will be accomplished in three specific aims.
In specific aim 1, consistent anatomy registration will be developed and validated against a database of fan beam CT images of breath hold and free-breathing lung cancer patients undergoing image- guided radiation therapy.
In specific aim 2, we will extend consistent anatomy registration to cone beam CT images to enable rapid estimation of tissue location and delivered dose with the patient in the treatment position.
In specific aim 3, the impact of DIR error on the ability to accurately adapt the treatment plan will be measured for consistent anatomy registration and for conventional DIR, for a variety of forms of adaptive radiotherapy. This project will provide the radiation therapy community with accurate DIR to support adapting the radiation therapy treatment plan to geometric change in locally-advanced non-small cell lung cancer.

Public Health Relevance

Increased dose to the tumor while minimizing unintended side effects in normal tissue is a necessity for improving outcomes for lung cancer radiotherapy. Daily targeting of lung tumors through imaging, which might enable this increased dose to be delivered, is limited by the inability to accurately track complex changes in the patient's tumor and anatomy over time, and to link this knowledge back to treatment delivery. The goal of this project is to develop a feedback system and test its ability to measure such complex changes during radiotherapy for lung cancer.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
7R01CA166119-06
Application #
9603786
Study Section
Radiation Therapeutics and Biology Study Section (RTB)
Program Officer
Obcemea, Ceferino H
Project Start
2013-02-01
Project End
2019-01-31
Budget Start
2017-08-01
Budget End
2019-01-31
Support Year
6
Fiscal Year
2017
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Washington University
Department
Radiation-Diagnostic/Oncology
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
068552207
City
Saint Louis
State
MO
Country
United States
Zip Code
63130
Guy, Christopher L; Weiss, Elisabeth; Christensen, Gary E et al. (2018) CALIPER: A deformable image registration algorithm for large geometric changes during radiotherapy for locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer. Med Phys 45:2498-2508
Guy, Christopher L; Weiss, Elisabeth; Jan, Nuzhat et al. (2018) Technical Note: A method for quality assurance of landmark sets for use in evaluation of deformable image registration accuracy of lung parenchyma. Med Phys :
Riblett, Matthew J; Christensen, Gary E; Weiss, Elisabeth et al. (2018) Data-driven respiratory motion compensation for four-dimensional cone-beam computed tomography (4D-CBCT) using groupwise deformable registration. Med Phys 45:4471-4482
Tennyson, Nathan; Weiss, Elisabeth; Sleeman, William et al. (2017) Effect of variations in atelectasis on tumor displacement during radiation therapy for locally advanced lung cancer. Adv Radiat Oncol 2:19-26
Hugo, Geoffrey D; Weiss, Elisabeth; Sleeman, William C et al. (2017) A longitudinal four-dimensional computed tomography and cone beam computed tomography dataset for image-guided radiation therapy research in lung cancer. Med Phys 44:762-771
Jan, Nuzhat; Guy, Christopher; Reshko, Leonid B et al. (2017) Lung and Heart Dose Variability During Radiation Therapy of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 98:683-690
Guy, Christopher L; Weiss, Elisabeth; Jan, Nuzhat et al. (2016) Effect of atelectasis changes on tissue mass and dose during lung radiotherapy. Med Phys 43:6109
Dial, Christian; Weiss, Elisabeth; Siebers, Jeffrey V et al. (2016) Benefits of adaptive radiation therapy in lung cancer as a function of replanning frequency. Med Phys 43:1787
Karki, Kishor; Hugo, Geoffrey D; Ford, John C et al. (2015) Estimation of optimal b-value sets for obtaining apparent diffusion coefficient free from perfusion in non-small cell lung cancer. Phys Med Biol 60:7877-91
Robertson, Scott P; Weiss, Elisabeth; Hugo, Geoffrey D (2014) A block matching-based registration algorithm for localization of locally advanced lung tumors. Med Phys 41:041704

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