Impact of Interfractional Error on Dosiomic Features

Abstract

ObjectivesThe purpose of this study was to investigate the stability of dosiomic features under random interfractional error. We investigated the differences in the values of features with different fractions and the error in the values of dosiomic features under interfractional error.Material and MethodsThe isocenters of the treatment plans of 15 lung cancer patients were translated by a maximum of ±3 mm in each axis with a mean of (0, 0, 0) and a standard deviation of (1.2, 1.2, 1.2) mm in the x, y, and z directions for each fraction. A total of 81 dose distributions for each patient were then calculated considering four fraction number groups (2, 10, 20, and 30). A total of 93 dosiomic features were extracted from each dose distribution in four different regions of interest (ROIs): gross tumor volume (GTV), planning target volume (PTV), heart, and both lungs. The stability of dosiomic features was analyzed for each fraction number group by the coefficient of variation (CV) and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). The agreements in the means of dosiomic features among the four fraction number groups were tested by ICC. The percent differences (PD) between the dosiomic features extracted from the original dose distribution and the dosiomic features extracted from the dose distribution with interfractional error were calculated.ResultsEleven out of 93 dosiomic features demonstrated a large CV (CV ≥ 20%). Overall CV values were highest in GTV ROIs and lowest in lung ROIs. The stability of dosiomic features decreased as the total number of fractions decreased. The ICC results showed that five out of 93 dosiomic features had an ICC lower than 0.75, which indicates intermediate or poor stability under interfractional error. The mean dosiomic feature values were shown to be consistent with different numbers of fractions (ICC ≥ 0.9). Some of the dosiomic features had PD greater than 50% and showed different PD values with different numbers of fractions.ConclusionSome dosiomic features have low stability under interfractional error. The stability and values of the dosiomic features were affected by the total number of fractions. The effect of interfractional error on dosiomic features should be considered in further studies regarding dosiomics for reproducible results.

Evaluation of Variability of Dosiomics Features with Varying Prescribed Dose in Prostate Cancer

“…According to the results of this study, the findings align with most studies in this field, indicating that PTV has features with the highest coefficient of variation [14][15][16]18]. Additionally, textural features, especially GLCM and GLSZM, exhibit the most variability in recent studies [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]18]. However, in terms VII J Biomed Phys Eng of the number of unstable features considering the area analyzed in this study, the rectum, PTV-LN, PTV-All, bladder, and PTV had the highest number of unstable features, respectively.…”

“…According to the results of this study, the findings align with most studies in this field, indicating that PTV has features with the highest coefficient of variation [14][15][16]18]. Additionally, textural features, especially GLCM and GLSZM, exhibit the most variability in recent studies [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]18].…”