Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Oncol. May 15, 2022; 14(5): 1027-1036
Published online May 15, 2022. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v14.i5.1027
Improving the accuracy and consistency of clinical target volume delineation for rectal cancer by an education program
Yang-Zi Zhang, Xiang-Gao Zhu, Ma-Xiaowei Song, Kai-Ning Yao, Shuai Li, Jian-Hao Geng, Hong-Zhi Wang, Yong-Heng Li, Yong Cai, Wei-Hu Wang
Yang-Zi Zhang, Xiang-Gao Zhu, Ma-Xiaowei Song, Kai-Ning Yao, Shuai Li, Jian-Hao Geng, Hong-Zhi Wang, Yong-Heng Li, Yong Cai, Wei-Hu Wang, Department of Radiation Oncology, Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Translational Research (Ministry of Education/Beijing), Peking University Cancer Hospital & Institute, Beijing 100142, China
Author contributions: Zhang YZ drafted the manuscript, and was involved with data analysis; Zhu XG, Yao KN, Li S, and Geng JH participated in the collection and analysis of the data; Song MX, Wang HZ, and Li YH revised the article critically for important intellectual content; Wang WH and Cai Y participated in the design of the study and revision of the article; and all authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Supported by the Beijing Municipal Science & Technology Commission, No. Z181100001718192; the Capital’s Funds for Health Improvement and Research, No. 2020-2-1027 and No. 2020-1-4021; the National Natural Science Foundation, No. 82073333; and the Beijing Natural Science Foundation, No. 1212011.
Institutional review board statement: This study was reviewed and approved by the Beijing Cancer Hospital Research Ethics Committee (Approval No. 2021YJZ111).
Informed consent statement: The participants of the study were not required to give informed consent to the study because the analysis used anonymous image data that were obtained from the education program.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.
Data sharing statement: The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding authors on reasonable request.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Wei-Hu Wang, MD, Chief Physician, Department of Radiation Oncology, Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Translational Research (Ministry of Education/Beijing), Peking University Cancer Hospital & Institute, No. 52 Fucheng Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100142, China. wangweihu88@163.com
Received: December 10, 2021
Peer-review started: December 10, 2021
First decision: January 12, 2022
Revised: January 24, 2022
Accepted: April 24, 2022
Article in press: April 24, 2022
Published online: May 15, 2022
Core Tip

Core Tip: Accurate clinical target volume (CTV) delineation is essential to ensure appropriate tumor control while minimizing the exposure of surrounding normal tissues. However, a large degree of variation in CTV delineation for rectal cancer still exists, despite the availability of several CTV delineation guidelines. Our study aimed to evaluate the impact of an education program on CTV delineation for rectal cancer. The results first confirmed the wide variations in CTV delineation for rectal cancer among radiation oncologists from mainland China and proved that a well-structured education program could improve the accuracy and consistency of delineation.