Background and purpose: The clinical feasibility of synthetic computed tomography (sCT) images derived from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) images for external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) planning have been studied and adopted into clinical use recently. This paper evaluates the dosimetric and positioning performance of a sCT approach for different pelvic cancers.

Materials and methods: Seventy-five patients receiving EBRT at Turku University Hospital (Turku, Finland) were enrolled in the study. The sCT images were generated as part of a clinical MRI-simulation procedure. Dose calculation accuracy was assessed by comparing the sCT-based calculation with a CT-based calculation. In addition, we evaluated the patient position verification accuracy for both digitally reconstructed radiograph (DRR) and cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) -based image guidance using a subset of the cohort. Furthermore, the relevance of using continuous Hounsfield unit values was assessed.

Results: The mean (standard deviation) relative dose difference in the planning target volume mean dose computed over various cancer groups was less than 0.2 (0.4)% between sCT and CT. Among all groups, the average minimum gamma-index pass-rates were better than 95% with a 2%/2mm gamma-criteria. The difference between sCT- and CT-DRR-based patient positioning was less than 0.3 (1.4) mm in all directions. The registrations of sCT to CBCT produced similar results as compared with CT to CBCT registrations.

Conclusions: The use of sCT for clinical EBRT dose calculation and patient positioning in the investigated types of pelvic cancers was dosimetrically and geometrically accurate for clinical use.