Deep learning method for predicting weekly anatomical changes in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma during radiotherapy

Abstract Background Patients may undergo anatomical changes during radiotherapy, leading to an underdosing of the target or overdosing of the organs at risk (OARs). Purpose This study developed a deep‐learning method to predict the tumor response of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) during treatment. This method can predict the anatomical changes of a patient. Methods The participants included 230 patients with NPC. The data included planning computed tomography (pCT) and routine cone‐beam CT (CBCT) images. The CBCT image quality was improved to the CT level using an advanced method. A long short‐term memory network‐generative adversarial network (LSTM‐GAN) is proposed, which can harness the forecasting ability of LSTM and the generation ability of GAN. Four models were trained to predict the anatomical changes that occurred in weeks 3–6 and named LSTM‐GAN‐week 3 to LSTM‐GAN‐week 6. The pCT and CBCT were used as input, and the tumor target volumes (TVs) and OARs were delineated on the predicted and real images (ground truth). Finally, the models were evaluated using contours and dosimetry parameters. Results The proposed method predicted the anatomical changes, with a dice similarity coefficient above 0.94 and 0.90 for the TVs and surrounding OARs, respectively. The dosimetry parameters were close between the prediction and ground truth. The deviations in the prescription, minimum, and maximum doses of the tumor targets were below 0.5 Gy. For serial organs (brain stem and spinal cord), the deviations in the maximum dose were below 0.6 Gy. For parallel organs (bilateral parotid glands), the deviations in the mean dose were below 0.8 Gy. Conclusion The proposed method can predict the tumor response to radiotherapy in the future such that adaptation can be scheduled on time. This study provides a proactive mechanism for planning adaptation, which can enable personalized treatment and save clinical time by anticipating and preparing for treatment strategy adjustments.