Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The delineation of target volumes for radiotherapy of lung cancer patients

2009; Elsevier BV; Volume: 91; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.radonc.2009.03.014

1879-0887

Hilke Vorwerk, Gabriele Beckmann, Michael Bremer, Maria Degen, B. Dietl, Rainer Fietkau, Tammo Gsänger, Robert Michael Hermann, Markus K. A. Herrmann, Ulrike Höller, Michael van Kampen, W Körber, Burkhard Maier, Thomas J. Martin, Michael Metz, Ronald Richter, Birgit Siekmeyer, Martin Steder, Daniela Wagner, Clemens Friedrich Hess, Elisabeth Weiss, Hans Christiansen,

Hepatocellular Carcinoma Treatment and Prognosis

Purpose Differences in the delineation of the gross target volume (GTV) and planning target volume (PTV) in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer are considerable. The focus of this work is on the analysis of observer-related reasons while controlling for other variables. Methods In three consecutive patients, eighteen physicians from fourteen different departments delineated the GTV and PTV in CT-slices using a detailed instruction for target delineation. Differences in the volumes, the delineated anatomic lymph node compartments and differences in every delineated pixel of the contoured volumes in the CT-slices (pixel-by-pixel-analysis) were evaluated for different groups: ten radiation oncologists from ten departments (ROs), four haematologic oncologists and chest physicians from four departments (HOs) and five radiation oncologists from one department (RO1D). Results Agreement (overlap ⩾ 70% of the contoured pixels) for the GTV and PTV delineation was found in 16.3% and 23.7% (ROs), 30.4% and 38.6% (HOs) and 32.8% and 35.9% (RO1D), respectively. Conclusion A large interobserver variability in the PTV and much more in the GTV delineation were observed in spite of a detailed instruction for delineation. The variability was smallest for group ROID where due to repeated discussions and uniform teaching a better agreement was achieved.