ArticleFrontiers in oncology2025
Interobserver variability in organ delineation on radiotherapy treatment planning for nasopharyngeal carcinoma: A dosimetric and prognostic analysis.
Article in Frontiers in oncology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Segment anything model (SAM)-driven prompt-guided interactive delineation of gross tumor volume for rectal cancer neoadjuvant radiotherapy.Medical physics · 2026Article
- Toward uncertainty-aware manual delineation of brain tumours using eye-tracking and image-derived features.Physics and imaging in radiation oncology · 2026Article
- Beyond auto-segmentation: the case for planning and dosimetry AI in head and neck radiation oncology.BMJ oncology · 2026Review
- Impacts of volumetric vs. anatomical accuracies in GTV segmentation for nasopharyngeal carcinoma: a consensus-guideline-based study.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Article
- Prediction of local recurrence in cohorts of head and neck cancer patients after intensity-modulated radiation therapy based on CT radiomics: A double-center observation study.Translational oncology · 2026Article
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Authors and funding
12 authors.
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Abstract
Background and purpose: This study aimed to analyze the impact of interobserver variability (IOV) on clinical dosimetry and prognosis, specifically investigating the correlation between IOV and clinical prognosis in the context of intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Materials and methods: Twelve NPC patients who underwent IMRT were selected. Four radiotherapy physicians from two different-tier cancer centers independently delineated target volumes and organs at risk (OARs) for each patient. These delineations were compared against gold standard structures from a regional cancer center. The IOV among physicians and its effect on clinical and prognosis were analyzed. The relationships between the IOV, dosimetry, and prognosis were investigated using spearman's correlation analysis. Results: The target volume and OARs delineation differed significantly among physicians. This variability led to reduced prescription dose coverage (PDC) of the planning target volume (PTV) and increased doses to OARs, impacting tumor control probability (TCP) and normal tissue complication probability (NTCP). Compared to standard delineations, all four physicians showed decreased TCPs (average decrease in ΔTCP >1%) and a significant increase in NTCPs of OARs. The relative volume difference (ΔV) of target volumes correlated strongly with ΔPDC (R=0.686) and ΔTCP (R=0.703). Moreover, in the validation set, ΔV also strongly correlated with ΔTCP (R = 0.778). Conclusion: Substantial IOV in delineating NPC target volumes and OARs for IMRT was observed. This variability affects plan optimization, dose distribution, and clinical prognosis. ΔV can serve as a risk predictor for assessing delineation variability in NPC radiotherapy treatment planning.
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