Impact of SSTR PET on Inter-Observer Variability of Target Delineation of Meningioma and the Possibility of Using Threshold-Based Segmentations in Radiation Oncology

Simple Summary Differences in tumor segmentations between radiation oncologists is one of the largest sources of uncertainty in radiation therapy planning. This study investigated the influence of additional functional information from somatostatin receptor PET imaging on the inter observer variability in the delineation of meningioma. Further, this study assessed the usability of a simple thresholding approach for lesion delineation. It could be shown, that additional PET information was able to significantly reduce the inter observer variability. The threshold based delineation approach required a relatively low threshold value and showed only moderate agreement with the radiation oncologists. Aim: The aim of this study was to assess the effects of including somatostatin receptor agonist (SSTR) PET imaging in meningioma radiotherapy planning by means of changes in inter-observer variability (IOV). Further, the possibility of using threshold-based delineation approaches for semiautomatic tumor volume definition was assessed. Patients and Methods: Sixteen patients with meningioma undergoing fractionated radiotherapy were delineated by five radiation oncologists. IOV was calculated by comparing each delineation to a consensus delineation, based on the simultaneous truth and performance level estimation (STAPLE) algorithm. The consensus delineation was used to adapt a threshold-based delineation, based on a maximization of the mean Dice coefficient. To test the threshold-based approach, seven patients with SSTR-positive meningioma were additionally evaluated as a validation group. Results: The average Dice coefficients for delineations based on MRI alone was 0.84 +/- 0.12. For delineation based on MRI + PET, a significantly higher dice coefficient of 0.87 +/- 0.08 was found (p < 0.001). The Hausdorff distance decreased from 10.96 +/- 11.98 mm to 8.83 +/- 12.21 mm (p < 0.001) when adding PET for the lesion delineation. The best threshold value for a threshold-based delineation was found to be 14.0% of the SUVmax, with an average Dice coefficient of 0.50 +/- 0.19 compared to the consensus delineation. In the validation cohort, a Dice coefficient of 0.56 +/- 0.29 and a Hausdorff coefficient of 27.15 +/- 21.54 mm were found for the threshold-based approach. Conclusions: SSTR-PET added to standard imaging with CT and MRI reduces the IOV in radiotherapy planning for patients with meningioma. When using a threshold-based approach for PET-based delineation of meningioma, a relatively low threshold of 14.0% of the SUVmax was found to provide the best agreement with a consensus delineation.

Automated summary

Differences in tumor segmentations between radiation oncologists can cause uncertainty in radiation therapy planning. This study investigated the use of additional somatostatin receptor PET imaging to reduce this variability in the delineation of meningioma. The study also assessed the usability of a threshold-based approach for lesion delineation. The results showed that adding PET information significantly reduced inter observer variability, but the threshold-based approach had only moderate agreement with radiation oncologists.