Official websites use .gov

A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS

A lock ( 🔒 ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Need Help

Automatic Organ Segmentation Tool for Radiation Treatment Planning of Cancers

Award Number: R44CA254844
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 05/01/2019
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 07/31/2024

Group Awards By:

View Award Description

Automatic Organ Segmentation Tool for Radiation Treatment Planning of Cancers - ABSTRACT As early detection and better treatment have increased cancer patient survival rates, the importance of protecting normal organs during radiation treatment is drawing more attention, which is critical in reducing long term toxicity of cancers. To avoid excessively high radiation doses to organs-at-risk (OARs), OARs need to be correctly segmented from simulation computed tomography (CT) scans during radiation treatment planning to get an accurate dose distribution. Despite tremendous effort in developing semi- or fully-automatic segmentation solutions, current automated segmentation software, mostly using the atlas-based methods, has not yet reached the level of accuracy and robustness required for clinical usage. Therefore, in current practice, significant manual efforts are still required in the OAR segmentation process. Manual contouring suffers from inter- and intra-observer variability, as well as institutional variability where different sites adopt distinct contouring atlases and labeling criteria, thus leading to inaccuracy and variability in OAR segmentation. When OARs are very close to the treatment target, segmentation errors as small as a few millimeters can have a statistically significant impact on dosimetry distribution and outcome. In addition, it is also costly and time consuming as it can take 1-2 hours of a clinicians’ time to segment major thoracic organs due to the large number of axial slices required. In summary, an accurate and fast process for segmenting OARs in treatment planning using CT scans is needed for improving patient outcomes and reducing the cost of radiation therapy of cancers. In recent years, the rapid development of deep learning methods has revolutionized many computer-vision areas and the adoption of deep learning in medical applications has shown great success. Based on a deep-learning-based algorithm we developed that achieved better-than-human performance and ranked 1st in 2017 American Association of Physicist in Medicine Thoracic Auto-segmentation Challenge, an automatic OAR segmentation product will be developed in this project with the three aims: 1) further improve the performance and robustness of OAR segmentation algorithms, focusing on addressing the heterogeneity issue of different clinical environments; 2) further enrich the functionalities and enhance usability of the cloud- based software product; and 3) perform clinical validation study on the algorithm performance and software usability at collaborating sites. With this product, the segmentation accuracy can be improved, leading to more robust treatment plans in protecting normal organs and improved long term patient outcome. The time and cost of radiation treatment planning can be greatly reduced, contributing to a more affordable cancer treatment and reduced healthcare burden.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2025 ( Subtotal = $0 )
2025	2021	CARINA MEDICAL LLC	42822 RAVENGLASS DR	ASHBURN	VA	20148	LOUDOUN	USA	Cancer Cause and Prevention Research	002	3	10/10/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
2025	2021	CARINA MEDICAL LLC	42822 RAVENGLASS DR	ASHBURN	VA	20148	LOUDOUN	USA	Cancer Cause and Prevention Research	001	3	10/4/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$110,765
2025	2021	CARINA MEDICAL LLC	42822 RAVENGLASS DR	ASHBURN	VA	20148	LOUDOUN	USA	Cancer Cause and Prevention Research	000	3	10/4/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	-$110,765
														Subtotal = $0

Issue Date FY: 2024 ( Subtotal = $0 )
2024	2022	CARINA MEDICAL LLC	42822 RAVENGLASS DR	ASHBURN	VA	20148	LOUDOUN	USA	Cancer Cause and Prevention Research	005	3	8/9/2024	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$0
2024	2022	CARINA MEDICAL LLC	42822 RAVENGLASS DR	ASHBURN	VA	20148	LOUDOUN	USA	Cancer Cause and Prevention Research	001	3	3/4/2024	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	-$49,504
2024	2022	CARINA MEDICAL LLC	42822 RAVENGLASS DR	ASHBURN	VA	20148	LOUDOUN	USA	Cancer Cause and Prevention Research	003	3	8/6/2024	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$49,504
2024	2021	CARINA MEDICAL LLC	42822 RAVENGLASS DR	ASHBURN	VA	20148	LOUDOUN	USA	Cancer Cause and Prevention Research	004	3	8/9/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
2024	2021	CARINA MEDICAL LLC	42822 RAVENGLASS DR	ASHBURN	VA	20148	LOUDOUN	USA	Cancer Cause and Prevention Research	002	3	8/6/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$61,261
2024	2021	CARINA MEDICAL LLC	42822 RAVENGLASS DR	ASHBURN	VA	20148	LOUDOUN	USA	Cancer Cause and Prevention Research	000	3	3/4/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	-$61,261
														Subtotal = $0

Issue Date FY: 2022 ( Subtotal = $49,504 )
2022	2022	CARINA MEDICAL LLC	1233 LITCHFIELD LN	LEXINGTON	KY	40513	FAYETTE	USA	Cancer Cause and Prevention Research	000	3	1/20/2022	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$49,504
														Subtotal = $49,504

Issue Date FY: 2021 ( Subtotal = $1,000,000 )
2021	2021	CARINA MEDICAL LLC	1233 LITCHFIELD LN	LEXINGTON	KY	40513	FAYETTE	USA	Cancer Cause and Prevention Research	000	3	7/27/2021	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$1,000,000
														Subtotal = $1,000,000

Issue Date FY: 2020 ( Subtotal = $1,000,000 )
2020	2020	CARINA MEDICAL LLC	1233 LITCHFIELD LN	LEXINGTON	KY	40513	FAYETTE	USA	Cancer Cause and Prevention Research	000	2	7/22/2020	CHANGE OF GRANTEE / TRAINING INSTITUTION / AWARDING INSTITUTION	$1,000,000
														Subtotal = $1,000,000

Grand Total All Awards = $2,049,504

Top

All Categories

About

Search

Reports

Data Submission

Award Information

Automatic Organ Segmentation Tool for Radiation Treatment Planning of Cancers

Award Number: R44CA254844

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 05/01/2019

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 07/31/2024

Federal Websites

Department of Health & Human Services

HHS Operating Divisions

HHS Staff Divisions

Download A Document Viewer