GEANT4 Monte Carlo simulations for virtual clinical trials in breast X-ray imaging: Proof of concept

•We developed a MC platform for Virtual Clinical Trials in 2D and 3D breast imaging.•We derived 88 patient breast models from a large cohort of clinical 3D breast images.•The MC platform produces projections and 3D dose maps for a given digital breast phantom.•We manufactured 3D printed patient brea...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physica medica 2020-06, Vol.74, p.133-142
Main Authors: di Franco, F., Sarno, A., Mettivier, G., Hernandez, A.M., Bliznakova, K., Boone, J.M., Russo, P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Breast - diagnostic imaging
Clinical Trials as Topic
Humans
Imaging, Three-Dimensional
Mammography
Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo Method
Patient-derived breast phantoms
Virtual clinical trials
X-ray breast imaging
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Summary:•We developed a MC platform for Virtual Clinical Trials in 2D and 3D breast imaging.•We derived 88 patient breast models from a large cohort of clinical 3D breast images.•The MC platform produces projections and 3D dose maps for a given digital breast phantom.•We manufactured 3D printed patient breast phantoms for validation of the MC software. Virtual clinical trials (VCT) are in-silico reproductions of medical examinations, which adopt digital models of patients and simulated devices. They are intended to produce clinically equivalent outcome data avoiding long execution times, ethical issues related to radiation induced risks and huge costs related to real clinical trials with a patient population. In this work, we present a platform for VCT in 2D and 3D X-ray breast imaging. The VCT platform uses Monte Carlo simulations based on the Geant4 toolkit and patient breast models derived from a cohort of high resolution dedicated breast CT (BCT) volume data sets. Projection images of the breast and three-dimensional glandular dose maps are generated for a given breast model, by simulating both 2D full-field digital mammography (DM) and 3D BCT examinations. Uncompressed voxelized breast models were derived from segmented patient images. Compressed versions of the digital breast phantoms for DM were generated using a previously published digital compression algorithm. The Monte Carlo simulation framework has the capability of generating and tracking ~105 photons/s using a server equipped with 16-cores and 3.0 GHz clock speed. The VCT platform will provide a framework for scanner design optimization, comparison between different scanner designs and between different modalities or protocols on computational breast models, without the need for scanning actual patients as in conventional clinical trials.
ISSN:1120-1797
1724-191X
DOI:10.1016/j.ejmp.2020.05.007