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Validation of a method for retroperitoneal tumor segmentation

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International Journal of Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

In 2005, an application for surgical planning called AYRA\({\textregistered }\) was designed and validated by different surgeons and engineers at the Virgen del Rocío University Hospital, Seville (Spain). However, the segmentation methods included in AYRA and in other surgical planning applications are not able to segment accurately tumors that appear in soft tissue. The aims of this paper are to offer an exhaustive validation of an accurate semiautomatic segmentation tool to delimitate retroperitoneal tumors from CT images and to aid physicians in planning both radiotherapy doses and surgery.

Methods

A panel of 6 experts manually segmented 11 cases of tumors, and the segmentation results were compared exhaustively with: the results provided by a surgical planning tool (AYRA), the segmentations obtained using a radiotherapy treatment planning system (Pinnacle\(^{\textregistered }\)), the segmentation results obtained by a group of experts in the delimitation of retroperitoneal tumors and the segmentation results using the algorithm under validation.

Results

11 cases of retroperitoneal tumors were tested. The proposed algorithm provided accurate results regarding the segmentation of the tumor. Moreover, the algorithm requires minimal computational time—an average of 90.5% less than that required when manually contouring the same tumor.

Conclusion

A method developed for the semiautomatic selection of retroperitoneal tumor has been validated in depth. AYRA, as well as other surgical and radiotherapy planning tools, could be greatly improved by including this algorithm.

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Acknowledgements

This research has been cofinanced by P11-TIC-7727 (Government of Andalusia, Spain) and PT13/0006/0036RETIC (FEDER Funds and Department of Health, Regional Government of Andalusia). We would like to thank Jose Manuel Conde and María José Ortíz for their clinical contribution. VirSSPA is a software funded by the Andalusian Government, Spain and FEDER Funds.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Technological Innovation Group, Virgen del Rocío University Hospital, Avda Manuel Siurot, s/n, 41013, Sevilla, Spain

    Cristina Suárez-Mejías & Carlos L. Parra-Calderón

  2. Signal Theory and Communications Department, University of Seville, Camino de los Descubrimientos, s/n, 41092, Sevilla, Spain

    José A. Pérez-Carrasco, Carmen Serrano & Begoña Acha

  3. Oncology Unit, Virgen del Rocío University Hospital, Avda Manuel Siurot, s/n, 41013, Sevilla, Spain

    José L. López-Guerra

  4. Surgery Unit, Virgen del Rocío University Hospital, Avda Manuel Siurot, s/n, 41013, Sevilla, Spain

    Tomás Gómez-Cía

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  1. Cristina Suárez-Mejías
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  2. José A. Pérez-Carrasco
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  3. Carmen Serrano
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Correspondence to José A. Pérez-Carrasco.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Suárez-Mejías, C., Pérez-Carrasco, J.A., Serrano, C. et al. Validation of a method for retroperitoneal tumor segmentation. Int J CARS 12, 2055–2067 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11548-017-1530-8

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