Contouring variation is one of the largest systematic uncertainties in radiotherapy, yet its effect on clinical outcome has never been analyzed quantitatively. We propose a novel, robust methodology to locally quantify target contour variation in a large patient cohort and find where this variation correlates with treatment outcome. We demonstrate its use on biochemical recurrence for prostate cancer patients.

中文翻译：

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评估轮廓变化对治疗结果影响的新方法

轮廓变异是放射治疗中最大的系统不确定性之一，但从未对其对临床结果的影响进行定量分析。我们提出了一种新颖、稳健的方法来局部量化大型患者队列中的目标轮廓变化，并找出这种变化与治疗结果的相关性。我们展示了它在前列腺癌患者生化复发中的应用。