A Multi-atlas Approach for Active Bone Marrow Sparing Radiation Therapy: Implementation in the NRG-GY006 Trial

Sparing active bone marrow (ABM) can reduce acute hematologic toxicity in patients undergoing chemoradiotherapy for cervical cancer, but ABM segmentation based on positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) is costly. We sought to develop an atlas-based ABM segmentation method for implementation in a prospective clinical trial.

A multiatlas was built on a training set of 144 patients and validated in 32 patients from the NRG-GY006 clinical trial. ABM for individual patients was defined as the subvolume of pelvic bone greater than the individual mean standardized uptake value on registered ¹⁸F-fluorodeoxyglucose PET/CT images. Atlas-based and custom ABM segmentations were compared using the Dice similarity coefficient and mean distance to agreement and used to generate ABM-sparing intensity modulated radiation therapy plans. Dose-volume metrics and normal tissue complication probabilities of the two approaches were compared using linear regression.

Atlas-based ABM volumes (mean [standard deviation], 548.4 [88.3] cm³) were slightly larger than custom ABM volumes (535.1 [93.2] cm³), with a Dice similarity coefficient of 0.73. Total pelvic bone marrow V₂₀ and D_mean were systematically higher and custom ABM V₁₀ was systematically lower with custom-based plans (slope: 1.021 [95% confidence interval (CI), 1.005-1.037], 1.014 [95% CI, 1.006-1.022], and 0.98 [95% CI, 0.97-0.99], respectively). We found no significant differences between atlas-based and custom-based plans in bowel, rectum, bladder, femoral heads, or target dose-volume metrics.

Atlas-based ABM segmentation can reduce pelvic bone marrow dose while achieving comparable target and other normal tissue dosimetry. This approach may allow ABM sparing in settings where PET/CT is unavailable.