Respiratory motion prediction based on deep artificial neural networks in CyberKnife system: A comparative study

In external beam radiotherapy, a prediction model is required to compensate for the temporal system latency that affects the accuracy of radiation dose delivery. This study focused on a thorough comparison of seven deep artificial neural networks to propose an accurate and reliable prediction model.

Seven deep predictor models are trained and tested with 800 breathing signals. In this regard, a nonsequential-correlated hyperparameter optimization algorithm is developed to find the best configuration of parameters for all models. The root mean square error (RMSE), mean absolute error, normalized RMSE, and statistical F-test are also used to evaluate network performance.

Overall, tuning the hyperparameters results in a 25%-30% improvement for all models compared to previous studies. The comparison between all models also shows that the gated recurrent unit (GRU) with RMSE = 0.108 ± 0.068 mm predicts respiratory signals with higher accuracy and better performance.

Overall, tuning the hyperparameters in the GRU model demonstrates a better result than the hybrid predictor model used in the CyberKnife VSI system to compensate for the 115 ms system latency. Additionally, it is demonstrated that the tuned parameters have a significant impact on the prediction accuracy of each model.