Program Information

Intra-Fraction Motion Characterization for Early Stage Rectal Cancer Using Cine-MRI

J Kleijnen*, B Asselen , M Burbach , M Intven , O Reerink , M Philippens , J Lagendijk , B Raaymakers , University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands

Presentations

TH-A-BRF-4 Thursday 7:30AM - 9:30AM Room: Ballroom F

Purpose:
To investigate the intra-fraction motion in patients with early stage rectal cancer using cine-MRI.

Methods:
Sixteen patient diagnosed with early stage rectal cancer underwent 1.5 T MR imaging prior to each treatment fraction of their short course radiotherapy (n=76). During each scan session, three 2D sagittal cine-MRIs were performed: at the beginning (Start), after 9:30 minutes (Mid), and after 18 minutes (End). Each cine-MRI has a duration of one minute at 2Hz temporal resolution, resulting in a total of 3:48 hours of cine-MRI. Additionally, standard T2-weighted (T2w) imaging was performed. Clinical target volume (CTV) an tumor (GTV) were delineated on the T2w scan and transferred to the first time-point of each cine-MRI scan.
Within each cine-MRI, the first frame was registered to the remaining frames of the scan, using a non-rigid B-spline registration. To investigate potential drifts, a similar registration was performed between the first frame of the Start and End scans.
To evaluate the motion, the distances by which the edge pixels of the delineations move in anterior-posterior (AP) and cranial-caudal (CC) direction, were determined using the deformation field of the registrations. The distance which incorporated 95% of these edge pixels (dist95%) was determined within each cine-MRI, and between Start-End scans, respectively.

Results:
Within a cine-MRI, we observed an average dist95% for the CTV of 1.3mm/1.5mm (SD=0.7mm/0.6mm) and for the GTV of 1.2mm/1.5mm (SD=0.8mm/0.9mm), in respectively AP/CC.
For the CTV motion between the Start and End scan, an average dist95% of 5.5mm/5.3mm (SD=3.1mm/2.5mm) was found, in respectively AP/CC. For the GTV motion, an average dist95% of 3.6mm/3.9mm (SD=2.2mm/2.5mm) was found in AP/CC, respectively.

Conclusion:
Although intra-fraction motion within a one minute cine-MRI is limited, substantial intra-fraction motion was observed within the 18 minute time period between the Start and End cine-MRI.

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