Deformable registration of brain tumor images via a statistical model of tumor-induced deformation

An approach to deformable registration of three-dimensional brain tumor images to a normal brain atlas is presented. The approach involves the integration of three components: a biomechanical model of tumor mass-effect, a statistical approach to estimate the model's parameters, and a deformable image registration method. Statistical properties of the desired deformation map are first obtained through tumor mass-effect simulations on normal brain images. This map is decomposed into the sum of two components in orthogonal subspaces, one representing inter-individual differences, and the other involving tumor-induced deformation. For a new tumor case, a partial observation of the desired deformation map is obtained via deformable image registration and is decomposed into the aforementioned spaces in order to estimate the mass-effect model parameters. Using this estimate, a simulation of tumor mass-effect is performed on the atlas to generate an image that is more similar to brain tumor image, thereby facilitating the atlas registration process. Results for a real and a simulated tumor case indicate significant reduction in the registration error due to the presented approach as compared to the direct use of deformable image registration.