Registration of lung tissue between fluoroscope and CT images: Determination of beam gating parameters in radiotherapy

Significant research has been conducted in radiation beam gating technology to manage target and organ motions in radiotherapy treatment of cancer patients. As more and more on-board imagers are installed onto linear accelerators, fluoroscopic imaging becomes readily available at the radiation treatment stage. Thus, beam gating parameters, such as beam-on timing and beam-on window can be potentially determined by employing image registration between treatment planning CT images and fluoroscopic images. We propose a new registration method on deformable soft tissue between fluoroscopic images and DRR (Digitally Reconstructed Radiograph) images from planning CT images using active shape models. We present very promising results of our method applied to 30 clinical datasets. These preliminary results show that the method is very robust for the registration of deformable soft tissue. The proposed method can be used to determine beam-on timing and treatment window for radiation beam gating technology, and can potentially greatly improve radiation treatment quality.