Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42241227›Full record

ArticleThe British journal of radiology2026

A comparison of contrast-to-noise ratio of liver tumors between dynamic contrast-enhanced CT and respiration-tracked 4D-CT for radiotherapy targeting.

Haechan J Yang, Nikolaj K G Jensen, Ben Beech, Stewart Gaede, Eugene Wong, Michael Lock

Abstract readComparative Study
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in The British journal of radiology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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1 · What the graph read from it

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2 · The registry

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3 · Its place in the literature

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Haechan J YangSchulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University, London, ON N6A 3K7, Canada.ORCID 0009-0008-3121-370X
Nikolaj K G JensenDepartment of Oncology, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen University Hospital, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark.
Ben BeechSchulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University, London, ON N6A 3K7, Canada.
Stewart GaedePhysics & Engineering, Verspeeten Family Cancer Centre, London Health Sciences Centre, London, ON N6A 5W9, Canada.
Eugene WongSchulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University, London, ON N6A 3K7, Canada.
Michael LockSchulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University, London, ON N6A 3K7, Canada.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectivesWe compare the contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) of tumors on 4D-CT and DCE-CT and explore how DCE-CT can be used to enhance tumor delineation for radiotherapy targeting.

methodsA total of 18 intrahepatic lesions from 15 patients were included in this study. Eight patients with primary hepatocellular carcinoma, and 7 metastatic patients with a total of 10 tumors, underwent DCE-CT and respiration-tracked 4D-CT. Both 4D-CT and DCE-CT were acquired at 120 kVp, but with 600 and 1920 mAs, respectively. CNRs were calculated for each lesion in each image set and compared using a paired t-test.

resultsDCE-CT image sets had CNRs that were higher than those of 4D-CT image sets. The improvement in CNR was significant for lesions that were metastatic rather than primary, for lesions that were smaller than the mean size (5.7 cm), and for lesions that had undergone prior treatment rather than those that had not.

conclusionsTarget volume delineation in liver radiotherapy is challenging due to the inherent low tumor CNR. DCE-CT significantly improves CNR in liver metastases compared to 4D-CT, the current standard for radiation treatment planning. Considerations for DCE-CT include patients with metastatic lesions, additional iodinated contrast, and CT dose. ADVANCES IN KNOWLEDGE: DCE-CT combined with 4D-CT can offer advantages in delineating small, previously-treated metastatic tumors for radiotherapy.

Indexed as

Carcinoma, HepatocellularContrast MediaFour-Dimensional Computed TomographyLiver NeoplasmsTomography, X-Ray ComputedAgedFemaleHumansMaleMiddle AgedRadiotherapy Planning, Computer-AssistedRespirationSignal-To-Noise RatioContrast Media4D-CTcontrast-to-noise ratiodynamic contrast-enhanced CTliver tumorstumor delineation

Identifiers

PMID42241227
PMCPMC13489393

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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.