Anatomy guided modality fusion for cancer segmentation in PET CT volumes and images

Abstract Segmentation in computed tomography (CT) provides detailed anatomical information, while positron emission tomography (PET) provide the metabolic activity of cancer. Existing segmentation models in CT and PET either rely on early fusion, which struggles to effectively capture independent fe...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ibtihaj Ahmad, Sadia Jabbar Anwar, Bagh Hussain, Atiq ur Rehman, Amine Bermak
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Portfolio 2025-04-01
Series:Scientific Reports
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-95757-6
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1849737312023347200
author Ibtihaj Ahmad
Sadia Jabbar Anwar
Bagh Hussain
Atiq ur Rehman
Amine Bermak
author_facet Ibtihaj Ahmad
Sadia Jabbar Anwar
Bagh Hussain
Atiq ur Rehman
Amine Bermak
author_sort Ibtihaj Ahmad
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Segmentation in computed tomography (CT) provides detailed anatomical information, while positron emission tomography (PET) provide the metabolic activity of cancer. Existing segmentation models in CT and PET either rely on early fusion, which struggles to effectively capture independent features from each modality, or late fusion, which is computationally expensive and fails to leverage the complementary nature of the two modalities. This research addresses the gap by proposing an intermediate fusion approach that optimally balances the strengths of both modalities. Our method leverages anatomical features to guide the fusion process while preserving spatial representation quality. We achieve this through the separate encoding of anatomical and metabolic features followed by an attentive fusion decoder. Unlike traditional fixed normalization techniques, we introduce novel “zero layers” with learnable normalization. The proposed intermediate fusion reduces the number of filters, resulting in a lightweight model. Our approach demonstrates superior performance, achieving a dice score of 0.8184 and an $$\hbox {HD}^{95}$$ score of 2.31. The implications of this study include more precise tumor delineation, leading to enhanced cancer diagnosis and more effective treatment planning.
format Article
id doaj-art-88c6a12e7e0f407aa465aebc92b72e87
institution DOAJ
issn 2045-2322
language English
publishDate 2025-04-01
publisher Nature Portfolio
record_format Article
series Scientific Reports
spelling doaj-art-88c6a12e7e0f407aa465aebc92b72e872025-08-20T03:06:57ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222025-04-0115111310.1038/s41598-025-95757-6Anatomy guided modality fusion for cancer segmentation in PET CT volumes and imagesIbtihaj Ahmad0Sadia Jabbar Anwar1Bagh Hussain2Atiq ur Rehman3Amine Bermak4Northwestern Polytechnical UniversityNorthwestern Polytechnical UniversityNorthwestern Polytechnical UniversityDivision of Information and Computing Technology, College of Science and Engineering, Hamad Bin Khalifa UniversityDivision of Information and Computing Technology, College of Science and Engineering, Hamad Bin Khalifa UniversityAbstract Segmentation in computed tomography (CT) provides detailed anatomical information, while positron emission tomography (PET) provide the metabolic activity of cancer. Existing segmentation models in CT and PET either rely on early fusion, which struggles to effectively capture independent features from each modality, or late fusion, which is computationally expensive and fails to leverage the complementary nature of the two modalities. This research addresses the gap by proposing an intermediate fusion approach that optimally balances the strengths of both modalities. Our method leverages anatomical features to guide the fusion process while preserving spatial representation quality. We achieve this through the separate encoding of anatomical and metabolic features followed by an attentive fusion decoder. Unlike traditional fixed normalization techniques, we introduce novel “zero layers” with learnable normalization. The proposed intermediate fusion reduces the number of filters, resulting in a lightweight model. Our approach demonstrates superior performance, achieving a dice score of 0.8184 and an $$\hbox {HD}^{95}$$ score of 2.31. The implications of this study include more precise tumor delineation, leading to enhanced cancer diagnosis and more effective treatment planning.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-95757-6
spellingShingle Ibtihaj Ahmad
Sadia Jabbar Anwar
Bagh Hussain
Atiq ur Rehman
Amine Bermak
Anatomy guided modality fusion for cancer segmentation in PET CT volumes and images
Scientific Reports
title Anatomy guided modality fusion for cancer segmentation in PET CT volumes and images
title_full Anatomy guided modality fusion for cancer segmentation in PET CT volumes and images
title_fullStr Anatomy guided modality fusion for cancer segmentation in PET CT volumes and images
title_full_unstemmed Anatomy guided modality fusion for cancer segmentation in PET CT volumes and images
title_short Anatomy guided modality fusion for cancer segmentation in PET CT volumes and images
title_sort anatomy guided modality fusion for cancer segmentation in pet ct volumes and images
url https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-95757-6
work_keys_str_mv AT ibtihajahmad anatomyguidedmodalityfusionforcancersegmentationinpetctvolumesandimages
AT sadiajabbaranwar anatomyguidedmodalityfusionforcancersegmentationinpetctvolumesandimages
AT baghhussain anatomyguidedmodalityfusionforcancersegmentationinpetctvolumesandimages
AT atiqurrehman anatomyguidedmodalityfusionforcancersegmentationinpetctvolumesandimages
AT aminebermak anatomyguidedmodalityfusionforcancersegmentationinpetctvolumesandimages