ArticleRadiology and oncology2016
Uncertainties in target volume delineation in radiotherapy - are they relevant and what can we do about them?
Article in Radiology and oncology, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 73 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
73 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Functional brain imaging interventions for radiation therapy planning in patients with glioblastoma: a systematic review.Radiation oncology (London, England) · 2022Pooled it
- A Systematic Review of Contouring Guidelines in Radiation Oncology: Analysis of Frequency, Methodology, and Delivery of Consensus Recommendations.International journal of radiation oncology, biology, physics · 2020Pooled it
- Importance of the Quality of Annotation: Impact of Simulated Inter-Observer Variability on Deep Neural Network Automated Segmentation Model Performance.Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Direct integration of deep learning-based GTV auto-segmentation into a clinical radiotherapy planning system.Physics and imaging in radiation oncology · 2026Article
- A clinically informed automated evaluation pipeline for medical image segmentation based on Medical Similarity Index.Physics and imaging in radiation oncology · 2026Article
- Quantitative assessment of inter-observer consistency in target volume delineation following breast-conserving surgery and mastectomy.Frontiers in oncology · 2026Article
- Clinical validation of AI-assisted contouring in prostate radiation therapy treatment planning: Highlighting automation bias and the need for standardized quality assurance.Journal of applied clinical medical physics · 2026Article
- Personalised medicine through AI-enhanced integration of diagnostic imaging and radiation therapy.European radiology experimental · 2025Review
- Evaluating the Impact of Transitioning from Weekly to Daily Peer Review in Radiation Oncology.Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention : APJCP · 2025Article
- Voxel-Based Dose-Toxicity Modeling for Predicting Post-Radiotherapy Toxicity: A Critical Perspective.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Real-world performance evaluation of commercial autocontouring software for head and neck cancer radiotherapy.The British journal of radiology · 2025Article
- Large-scale convolutional neural network for clinical target and multi-organ segmentation in gynecologic brachytherapy via multi-stage learning.Medical physics · 2025Article
- National competition reveals common errors in target delineation among young clinicians in radiation therapy.BMC medical education · 2025Article
- Target Contour Consistency During Magnetic Resonance-Guided Online Adaptive Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy.Advances in radiation oncology · 2025Article
- PET/CT and MR Improve Interobserver Agreement in Primary Tumor Determination for Radiotherapy in Esophageal Squamous Cell Cancer.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Experience and uncertainty analysis of CT-based adaptive radiotherapy for abdominal treatments.Physica medica : PM : an international journal devoted to the applications of physics to medicine and biology : official journal of the Italian Association of Biomedical Physics (AIFB) · 2025Article
- Guidance on selecting and evaluating AI auto-segmentation systems in clinical radiotherapy: insights from a six-vendor analysis.Physical and engineering sciences in medicine · 2025Article
- Multi-scale channel attention U-Net: a novel framework for automated gallbladder segmentation in medical imaging.Frontiers in oncology · 2025Article
- Assessing Self-supervised xLSTM-UNet Architectures for Head and Neck Tumor Segmentation in MR-Guided Applications.Head and Neck Tumor Segmentation for MR-Guided Applications : First MICCAI Challenge, HNTS-MRG 2024, held in conjunction with MICCAI 2024, Marrakesh, Morocco, October 17, 2024, proceedings · 2025Article
- Enhancing online adaptive radiotherapy with uncertainty based segmentation error and out-of-distribution detection.Frontiers in oncology · 2025Article
13 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundModern radiotherapy techniques enable delivery of high doses to the target volume without escalating dose to organs at risk, offering the possibility of better local control while preserving good quality of life. Uncertainties in target volume delineation have been demonstrated for most tumour sites, and various studies indicate that inconsistencies in target volume delineation may be larger than errors in all other steps of the treatment planning and delivery process. The aim of this paper is to summarize the degree of delineation uncertainties for different tumour sites reported in the literature and review the effect of strategies to minimize them.
conclusionsOur review confirmed that interobserver variability in target volume contouring represents the largest uncertainty in the process for most tumour sites, potentially resulting in a systematic error in dose delivery, which could influence local control in individual patients. For most tumour sites the optimal combination of imaging modalities for target delineation still needs to be determined. Strict use of delineation guidelines and protocols is advisable both in every day clinical practice and in clinical studies to diminish interobserver variability. Continuing medical education of radiation oncologists cannot be overemphasized, intensive formal training on interpretation of sectional imaging should be included in the program for radiation oncology residents.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.