Inter-tester reproducibility of tumour change in small cell lung cancer patients undergoing chemoradiotherapy

AbstractBackground. Tumour volume change during delivery of chemoradiotherapy is observed in small cell lung cancer (SCLC) patients. In this study, we have compared tumour volume and anatomical changes, e.g. atelectasis or pleural effusions determined by three different methods. Method. A total of 37 SCLC patients undergoing thoracic radiotherapy during 2010–2011 were included. The patients were treated based on a daily three-dimensional (3D) cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) bony anatomy registration. The CBCT scans were retrospectively reviewed visually by a radiation therapist (Visual-RTT) in order to register tumour volume changes. Furthermore, the tumour volume changes were obtained by either deformable image registration (DIR) or delineation by a radiation oncologist (RO). Kappa (κ) statistics and paired t-tests were used for evaluation of the inter-tester agreement. Results. The tumour volume change between the Visual-RTT, the DIR and the RO assessments obtained 84–97% agreement (κ = 0.68–0.95)....