Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41561791›Full record

ArticleMachine Learning. Health2026

Artificial intelligence (AI)-based multi-organ contour quality assurance with uncertainty estimation for online adaptive radiotherapy (oART).

Shunyu Yan, Jiacheng Xie, Na Chen, Dan Nguyen, Fan-Chi Su, Daniel Yang, You Zhang, Steve Jiang, Chenyang Shen

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Machine Learning. Health, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors.

Shunyu YanThe Medical Artificial Intelligence and Automation (MAIA) Laboratory and Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX 75390, United States of America.ORCID https://orcid.org/0009-0000-5694-8130
Jiacheng XieThe Medical Artificial Intelligence and Automation (MAIA) Laboratory and Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX 75390, United States of America.ORCID https://orcid.org/0009-0006-1621-446X
Na ChenThe Medical Artificial Intelligence and Automation (MAIA) Laboratory and Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX 75390, United States of America.
Dan NguyenThe Medical Artificial Intelligence and Automation (MAIA) Laboratory and Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX 75390, United States of America.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9590-0655
Fan-Chi SuThe Medical Artificial Intelligence and Automation (MAIA) Laboratory and Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX 75390, United States of America.
Daniel YangThe Medical Artificial Intelligence and Automation (MAIA) Laboratory and Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX 75390, United States of America.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6268-4653
You ZhangThe Medical Artificial Intelligence and Automation (MAIA) Laboratory and Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX 75390, United States of America.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8033-2755
Steve JiangThe Medical Artificial Intelligence and Automation (MAIA) Laboratory and Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX 75390, United States of America.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3083-6752
Chenyang ShenThe Medical Artificial Intelligence and Automation (MAIA) Laboratory and Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX 75390, United States of America.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6490-6555

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Accurate delineation of treatment targets and organs at risk (OARs) is essential to the success of radiotherapy (RT). Although artificial intelligence (AI)-based segmentation methods have successfully automated the delineation process, a reliable and efficient quality assurance (QA) mechanism is still missing, particularly in the time-critical setting of online adaptive RT (oART). This study aims to address this unmet clinical need by introducing an AI-driven multi-organ contour QA framework with uncertainty quantification. Using MR-guided oART for prostate cancer as the testbed, we developed an automatic multi-structure QA framework by employing a carefully designed contour quality estimation (ConQuE) model. Built on a ResNet34 backbone, ConQuE processes binary segmentation masks with corresponding MR images to classify contours as 'acceptable' or 'revision required' in a slice-by-slice manner. To ensure scalability, we proposed a unified framework for multi-organ QA by embedding structure-specific code into the fully connected layers. To quantify classification uncertainty, Monte Carlo (MC) dropout was employed, enabling confidence assessment of model predictions for informative decision-making in oART. ConQuE was trained to assess the segmentation quality of prostate and six OARs, including rectum, bladder, urethra, penile bulb, cauda equina, and femoral heads. Training was performed using 249 cases for training, 31 for validation, and another 31 cases were saved for testing. With 30 MC dropout passes, ConQuE can complete QA for one image slice in ∼13.1 ms. Overall, ConQuE achieved accuracy of 93.9% on all structures with structure-specific performance consistently above 90%, demonstrating its strong capability in identifying

Indexed as

artificial intelligencecontour quality assurancedeep learningonline adaptive radiotherapyuncertainty quantification

Identifiers

PMID41561791
PMCPMC12813885

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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.