Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39666566›Full record

ArticleMedical physics2025

Unsupervised Bayesian generation of synthetic CT from CBCT using patient-specific score-based prior.

Junbo Peng, Yuan Gao, Chih-Wei Chang, Richard Qiu, Tonghe Wang, Aparna Kesarwala, Kailin Yang, Jacob Scott, David Yu, Xiaofeng Yang

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Medical physics, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
6citing papers in PubMed, 2 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

6 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
  3. Article
  4. Deep Learning for CT Synthesis in Radiotherapy.Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025
    Review
  5. Article
  6. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

10 authors.

Junbo PengDepartment of Radiation Oncology and Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Yuan GaoDepartment of Radiation Oncology and Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Chih-Wei ChangDepartment of Radiation Oncology and Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Richard QiuDepartment of Radiation Oncology and Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Tonghe WangDepartment of Medical Physics, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York, USA.
Aparna KesarwalaDepartment of Radiation Oncology and Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Kailin YangDepartment of Radiation Oncology, Taussig Cancer Center, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio, USA.
Jacob ScottDepartment of Radiation Oncology, Taussig Cancer Center, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio, USA.
David YuDepartment of Radiation Oncology and Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Xiaofeng YangDepartment of Radiation Oncology and Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

Funding

X-RAY CRYSTALLOGRAPHYP30CA008748 · NCI · SLOAN-KETTERING INSTITUTE FOR CANCER RES · PI Hongbiao Carl Lekaye · 1985 to 2026
$347.4M
Translational and Clinical Trial Correlates CoreU54CA274513 · NCI · CLEVELAND CLINIC LERNER COM-CWRU · PI David Sung-wen Yu · 2022 to 2026
$9.3M
eXtended Modular ANthropomorphic (XMAN) phantom for Imaging and Treatment Optimization in Radiotherapy.R01EB032680 · NIBIB · UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND BALTIMORE · PI REN, LEI, YANG, XIAOFENG · 2022 to 2025
$2.4M
Real-time Volumetric Imaging for Motion Management and Dose Delivery VerificationR01CA272991 · NCI · EMORY UNIVERSITY · PI Zhen Tian, Xiaofeng Yang · 2023 to 2026
$2.3M
Artificial Intelligence Driven Automatic Treatment Planning of Stereotactic Radiosurgery for the Management of Multiple Brain MetastasesR37CA272755 · NCI · UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO · PI Zhen Tian · 2022 to 2026
$1.8M
Intelligent and Personalized Online Adaptive Proton TherapyR01DE033512 · NIDCR · UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO · PI Zhen Tian, Xiaofeng Yang · 2024 to 2026
$1.8M
ASTRO-LUNGevity Foundation Radiation OncologyNCI NIH HHS P30 CA008748NCI NIH HHS R01 CA272991NCI NIH HHS R37 CA272755NCI NIH HHS U54 CA274513NIBIB NIH HHS R01 EB032680NIH HHS R01CA272991NIH HHS R01DE033512NIH HHS R01EB032680NIH HHS U54CA274513RSNA Research
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundCone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) scans, performed fractionally (e.g., daily or weekly), are widely utilized for patient alignment in the image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT) process, thereby making it a potential imaging modality for the implementation of adaptive radiotherapy (ART) protocols. Nonetheless, significant artifacts and incorrect Hounsfield unit (HU) values hinder their application in quantitative tasks such as target and organ segmentations and dose calculation. Therefore, acquiring CT-quality images from the CBCT scans is essential to implement online ART in clinical settings. PURPOSE: This work aims to develop an unsupervised learning method using the patient-specific diffusion model for CBCT-based synthetic CT (sCT) generation to improve the image quality of CBCT.

methodsThe proposed method is in an unsupervised framework that utilizes a patient-specific score-based model as the image prior alongside a customized total variation (TV) regularization to enforce coherence across different transverse slices. The score-based model is unconditionally trained using the same patient's planning CT (pCT) images to characterize the manifold of CT-quality images and capture the unique anatomical information of the specific patient. The efficacy of the proposed method was assessed on images from anatomical sites including head and neck (H&N) cancer, pancreatic cancer, and lung cancer. The performance of the proposed CBCT correction method was evaluated using quantitative metrics, including mean absolute error (MAE), non-uniformity (NU), and structural similarity index measure (SSIM). Additionally, the proposed algorithm was benchmarked against other unsupervised learning-based CBCT correction algorithms.

resultsThe proposed method significantly reduced various kinds of CBCT artifacts in the studies of H&N, pancreatic, and lung cancer patients. In the lung stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) patient study, the MAE, NU, and SSIM were improved from 47 HU, 45 HU, and 0.58 in the original CBCT images to 13 HU, 14 dB, and 0.67 in the generated sCT images. Compared to other unsupervised learning-based algorithms, the proposed method demonstrated superior performance in artifact reduction.

conclusionsThe proposed unsupervised method can generate sCT from CBCT with reduced artifacts and precise HU values, enabling CBCT-guided segmentation and replanning for online ART.

Indexed as

Cone-Beam Computed TomographyImage Processing, Computer-AssistedUnsupervised Machine LearningBayes TheoremHumansCBCTdiffusion modelsynthetic CTunsupervised learning

Identifiers

PMID39666566
PMCPMC12359064

What Socratic holds

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Registered trials

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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 Socratic graph.