Multiscale registration of planning CT and daily cone beam CT images for adaptive radiation therapy

Adaptive radiation therapy (ART) is the incorporation of daily images in the radiotherapy treatment process so that the treatment plan can be evaluated and modified to maximize the amount of radiation dose to the tumor while minimizing the amount of radiation delivered to healthy tissue. Registration of planning images with daily images is thus an important component of ART. In this article, the authors report their research on multiscale registration of planning computed tomography (CT) images with daily cone beam CT (CBCT) images. The multiscale algorithm is based on the hierarchical multiscale image decomposition of E. Tadmor, S. Nezzar, and L. Vese [Multiscale Model. Simul. 2(4), pp. 554-579 (2004)]. Registration is achieved by decomposing the images to be registered into a series of scales using the (BV, L2) decomposition and initially registering the coarsest scales of the image using a landmark-based registration algorithm. The resulting transformation is then used as a starting point to deformably register the next coarse scales with one another. This procedure is iterated at each stage using the transformation computed by the previous scale registration as the starting point for the current registration. The authors present the results of studies of rectum, head-neck, and prostate CT-CBCT registration, and validate their registration method quantitatively using synthetic results in which the exact transformations our known, and qualitatively using clinical deformations in which the exact results are not known.