Positron emission tomography (PET) is a molecular imaging technique that provides a direct and accurate evaluation of tissue function in vivo. PET of the glucose analogue 18F-fluoro-deoxy-glucose, is increasingly in use to aid in gross target volume delineation in radiotherapy treatment planning (RTP) where it shows reduced inter-observer variability. The aim of this thesis was to develop and investigate a new technique for delineating PET-GTV with sufficient accuracy for RTP. A new technique, volume and contrast adjusted thresholding (VCAT), has been developed to automatically determine the optimum threshold value that measures the true volume on PET images. The accuracy was investigated in spherical and irregular lesions in phantoms using both iterative and filtered back-projection reconstructions and different image noise levels. The accuracy of delineation for the irregular lesions was assessed by comparison with CT using the Dice Similarity Coefficient and Euclidean Distance Transformation. A preliminarily investigation of implementing the newly developed technique in patients was carried out. VCAT proved to determine volumes and delineate tumour boundaries on PET/CT well within the acceptable errors for radiotherapy treatment planning irrespective of lesion contrast, image noise level and reconstruction technique.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:538427 |
| Date | January 2010 |
| Creators | Aly, Moamen |
| Contributors | Hastings, David ; Rowbottom, Carl |
| Publisher | University of Manchester |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/the-application-of-positron-emission-tomography-in-radiotherapy-treatment-planning(23a8d56c-c6da-4e3f-a27e-6ecbc979c86e).html |
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