Biological target volume segmentation for radiotherapy treatment planning

The CT gross tumor volume (GTV) is the gold standard for target tumor delineation in head and neck cancer (HNC) radio-treatments (RT). Nevertheless, CT images may not show the viable extension of tumors. Vice versa, FDG-PET provides functional information, offering the opportunity to radically change the patient treatment. In RT, within or without the GTV, it is possible to define the PET biological target volume (BTV) and to apply a specific deliver radiation strategy to these regions. BTV delineation is challenging because of the low spatial resolution and high noise level in PET images. For these reasons, BTV varies substantially depending on the algorithm used. In this study a fast, accurate, and scanner independent BTV segmentation method is proposed.