Performance evaluation of a newly developed three-dimensional model-based global-to-local registration in prostate cancer

We evaluated the performance of a newly developed three-dimensional (3D) model-based global-to-local registration of multiple organs, by comparing it with a 3D model-based global registration in the prostate region. This study included 220 prostate cancer patients who underwent intensity-modulated radiotherapy or volumetric-modulated arc therapy. Our registration proceeded sequentially, i.e. global registration including affine and piece-wise affine transformation followed by local registration. As a local registration, Laplacian-based and finite element method-based registration was implemented in Algorithm A and B, respectively. Algorithm C was for global registration alone. The template models for the prostate, seminal vesicles, rectum and bladder were constructed from the first 20 patients, and then three different registrations were performed on these organs for the remaining 200 patients, to assess registration accuracy. The 75th percentile Hausdorff distance was <1 mm in Algorithm A; it was >1 mm in Algorithm B, except for the prostate; and 3.9 mm for the prostate and >7.8 mm for other organs in Algorithm C. The median computation time to complete registration was <101, 30 and 16 s in Algorithms A, B and C, respectively. Analysis of variance revealed significant differences among Algorithms A–C in the Hausdorff distance and computation time. In addition, no significant difference was observed in the difference of Hausdorff distance between Algorithm A and B with Tukey’s multiple comparison test. The 3D model-based global-to-local registration, especially that implementing Laplacian-based registration, completed surface registration rapidly and provided sufficient registration accuracy in the prostate region.