# Advances in Auto-Segmentation

Source: https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-cardenas-semin-radiat-oncol/  
OnCo record `paper-cardenas-semin-radiat-oncol` (Key paper). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Paper cited by one technology page, indexed on Europe PMC as PubMed record 31027636 and published in Seminars in radiation oncology; the citing page links this DOI, which is how the record was matched.

## Summary

Manual image segmentation is a time-consuming task routinely performed in radiotherapy to identify each patient's targets and anatomical structures. The efficacy and safety of the radiotherapy plan requires accurate segmentations as these regions of interest are generally used to optimize and assess the quality of the plan. However, reports have shown that this process can be subject to significant inter- and intraobserver variability. Furthermore, the quality of the radiotherapy treatment, and subsequent analyses (ie, radiomics, dosimetric), can be subject to the accuracy of these manual segmentations. Automatic segmentation (or auto-segmentation) of targets and normal tissues is, therefore, preferable as it would address these challenges. Previously, auto-segmentation techniques have been clustered into 3 generations of algorithms, with multiatlas based and hybrid techniques (third generation) being considered the state-of-the-art. More recently, however, the field of medical image segmentation has seen accelerated growth driven by advances in computer vision, particularly through the application of deep learning algorithms, suggesting we have entered the fourth generation of auto-segmentation algorithm development. In this paper, the authors review traditional (nondeep learning) algorithms particularly relevant for applications in radiotherapy. Concepts from deep learning are introduced focusing on convolutional neural networks and fully-convolutional networks which are generally used for segmentation tasks. Furthermore, the authors provide a summary of deep learning auto-segmentation radiotherapy applications reported in the literature. Lastly, considerations for clinical deployment (commissioning and QA) of auto-segmentation software are provided.

Indexed on Europe PMC as PubMed record 31027636 (DOI 10.1016/j.semradonc.2019.02.001). Matched by DOI alone: one technology page cites this DOI among its external links (the pages are listed under Related), and this page was written so that the citation resolves inside OnCo. No figure has been checked by an editor.

## Fields

- Kind: Key paper
- Last checked: 2026-09-22
- Tags: europepmc-ingest
- Journal: Seminars in radiation oncology
- Year: 2019
- DOI: 10.1016/j.semradonc.2019.02.001
- Authors: Cardenas CE, Yang J, Anderson BM, et al.
- What it means: One technology page on OnCo cites this paper by its DOI; this record gives the citation a page of its own so a reader can follow it without leaving OnCo. Read the abstract above alongside the citing page listed under Related; the record was created automatically from the Europe PMC entry and its figures have not been checked by hand.
- Caveats: Matched to the citing OnCo records by DOI alone; the summary reproduces the Europe PMC abstract and no figure has been verified against the full paper.

## Sources

- Semin Radiat Oncol 2019: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.semradonc.2019.02.001
- PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31027636/
- Europe PMC: https://europepmc.org/article/MED/31027636

## Connected records

- technologies: [AI auto-contouring and adaptive planning](https://onco.cc/technologies/auto-contouring-ai/)
- journals: [Seminars in radiation oncology](https://onco.cc/journals/seminars-in-radiation-oncology/)

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