Development and validation of a deep reinforcement learning algorithm for auto-delineation of organs at risk in cervical cancer radiotherapy

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 15; no. 1; pp. 6800 - 11
• Main Authors: Yucheng, Li, Lingyun, Qiu, Kainan, Shao, Yongshi, Jia, Wenming, Zhan, Jieni, Ding, Weijun, Chen
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 25.02.2025; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 631/114/1564; 631/67/1517/1371; 692/4028/67/2321; Accuracy; Adult; Algorithms; Cancer; Cervical cancer; Computed tomography; Deep Learning; Deep reinforcement learning; Duodenum; Female; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Middle Aged; multidisciplinary; Organs at risk; Organs at Risk - diagnostic imaging; Organs at Risk - radiation effects; Patients; Radiation therapy; Radiotherapy Planning, Computer-Assisted - methods; Rectum; Reinforcement; Reinforcement Machine Learning; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Segment anything model; Segmentation; Tomography, X-Ray Computed - methods; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms - diagnostic imaging; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms - radiotherapy; Deep learning; Deep reinforcement learning; Organs at risk; Segment anything model; Cervical cancer
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-91362-9

This study was conducted to develop and validate a novel deep reinforcement learning (DRL) algorithm incorporating the segment anything model (SAM) to enhance the accuracy of automatic contouring organs at risk during radiotherapy for cervical cancer patients. CT images were collected from 150 cervical cancer patients treated at our hospital between 2021 and 2023. Among these images, 122 CT images were used as a training set for the algorithm training of the DRL model based on the SAM model, and 28 CT images were used for the test set. The model’s performance was evaluated by comparing its segmentation results with the ground truth (manual contouring) obtained through manual contouring by expert clinicians. The test results were compared with the contouring results of commercial automatic contouring software based on the deep learning (DL) algorithm model. The Dice similarity coefficient (DSC), 95th percentile Hausdorff distance, average symmetric surface distance (ASSD), and relative absolute volume difference (RAVD) were used to quantitatively assess the contouring accuracy from different perspectives, enabling the contouring results to be comprehensively and objectively evaluated. The DRL model outperformed the DL model across all evaluated metrics. DRL achieved higher median DSC values, such as 0.97 versus 0.96 for the left kidney ( P  < 0.001), and demonstrated better boundary accuracy with lower HD95 values, e.g., 14.30 mm versus 17.24 mm for the rectum ( P  < 0.001). Moreover, DRL exhibited superior spatial agreement (median ASSD: 1.55 mm vs. 1.80 mm for the rectum, P  < 0.001) and volume prediction accuracy (median RAVD: 10.25 vs. 10.64 for the duodenum, P  < 0.001). These findings indicate that integrating SAM with RL (reinforcement learning) enhances segmentation accuracy and consistency compared to conventional DL methods. The proposed approach introduces a novel training strategy that improves performance without increasing model complexity, demonstrating its potential applicability in clinical practice.