title: Feasibility of MRI-only treatment planning for proton therapy in brain and prostate cancers: Dose calculation accuracy in substitute CT images.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is increasingly used for radiotherapy target delineation, image guidance, and treatment response monitoring. Recent studies have shown that an entire external x-ray radiotherapy treatment planning (RTP) workflow for brain tumor or prostate cancer patients based only on MRI reference images is feasible. This study aims to show that a MRI-only based RTP workflow is also feasible for proton beam therapy plans generated in MRI-based substitute computed tomography (sCT) images of the head and the pelvis.
  
  
  METHODS
  The sCTs were constructed for ten prostate cancer and ten brain tumor patients primarily by transforming the intensity values of in-phase MR images to Hounsfield units (HUs) with a dual model HU conversion technique to enable heterogeneous tissue representation. HU conversion models for the pelvis were adopted from previous studies, further extended in this study also for head MRI by generating anatomical site-specific conversion models (a new training data set of ten other brain patients). This study also evaluated two other types of simplified sCT: dual bulk density (for bone and water) and homogeneous (water only). For every clinical case, intensity modulated proton therapy (IMPT) plans robustly optimized in standard planning CTs were calculated in sCT for evaluation, and vice versa. Overall dose agreement was evaluated using dose-volume histogram parameters and 3D gamma criteria.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In heterogeneous sCTs, the mean absolute errors in HUs were 34 (soft tissues: 13, bones: 92) and 42 (soft tissues: 9, bones: 97) in the head and in the pelvis, respectively. The maximum absolute dose differences relative to CT in the brain tumor clinical target volume (CTV) were 1.4% for heterogeneous sCT, 1.8% for dual bulk sCT, and 8.9% for homogenous sCT. The corresponding maximum differences in the prostate CTV were 0.6%, 1.2%, and 3.6%, respectively. The percentages of dose points in the head and pelvis passing 1% and 1 mm gamma index criteria were over 91%, 85%, and 38% with heterogeneous, dual bulk, and homogeneous sCTs, respectively. There were no significant changes to gamma index pass rates for IMPT plans first optimized in CT and then calculated in heterogeneous sCT versus IMPT plans first optimized in heterogeneous sCT and then calculated on standard CT.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study demonstrates that proton therapy dose calculations on heterogeneous sCTs are in good agreement with plans generated with standard planning CT. An MRI-only based RTP workflow is feasible in IMPT for brain tumors and prostate cancers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Comprehensive Cancer Center, Helsinki University Central Hospital, P.O. Box 180, Helsinki 00029 HUS, Finland and Department of Medical Physics, Oncology Services, Vejle Hospital, Kabbeltoft 25, Vejle DK-7100, Denmark.
authors.forename: Lauri
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Koivula
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Physics, Oncology Services, Vejle Hospital, Kabbeltoft 25, Vejle DK-7100, Denmark and Danish Colorectal Cancer Centre South, Vejle Hospital, Kabbeltoft 25, Vejle DK-7100, Denmark.
authors.forename: Leonard
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wee
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Comprehensive Cancer Center, Helsinki University Central Hospital, P.O. Box 180, Helsinki 00029 HUS, Finland; Danish Colorectal Cancer Centre South, Vejle Hospital, Kabbeltoft 25, Vejle DK-7100, Denmark; and Department of Radiology, Helsinki University Central Hospital, P.O. Box 180, Helsinki 00029 HUS, Finland.
authors.forename: Juha
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Korhonen
mesh_terms: D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D006257:Head / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D010388:Pelvis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D061766:Proton Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D011879:Radiotherapy Dosage; D011880:Radiotherapy Planning, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D061089:Radiotherapy, Image-Guided / Q000379:methods; D050397:Radiotherapy, Intensity-Modulated / Q000379:methods*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods