Dual-Scale Transformer-Guided Attention Network for Efficient Multi-OAR Segmentation in Head and Neck Radiotherapy
- Publication Date
- August 31, 2025
- Volume / Issue
- Vol. 4, Issue 2 (pp. 38-53)
- DOI Identifier
- 10.58190/imiens.2025.126

Dual-Scale Transformer-Guided Attention Network for Efficient Multi-OAR Segmentation in Head and Neck Radiotherapy
Official publication asset for Intelligent Methods In Engineering Sciences
subjectAbstract
Accurate segmentation of organ-at-risk (OARs) in head and neck CT images is crucial for radiotherapy planning, but it remains a challenging task due to anatomical complexity, low soft-tissue contrast, and the presence of small, variable structures. We propose DSTANet, a novel dual-scale transformer-guided attention network that integrates multi-resolution encoding, transformer-based global context fusion, and anatomically guided attention refinement to deliver precise multi-OAR segmentation. Unlike traditional CNN-based methods, DSTANet effectively models long-range spatial dependencies while preserving high-resolution boundary detail. On the HNSCC-3DCT-RT dataset, DSTANet achieved a mean Dice Score of 97.5% and a mean 95th percentile Hausdorff Distance (HD95) of 2.32 mm, while on the MICCAI 2015 benchmark dataset, it achieved 90.0% Dice, which surpasses several state-of-the-art approaches both in terms of overlap and geometric accuracy. These results, combined with a sub-20-second inference time, establish DSTANet as a robust and clinically viable solution for automated head and neck OAR segmentation.
Author Information & Affiliations
- Uzma Nawaz— Knowledge and Data Science Research Centre, Department of Computer and Software Engineering, College of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, National University of Science and Technology, Islamabad, Pakistanlinkhttps://orcid.org/0009-0003-3805-8101
- Hafiz Muhammad Ubaidullah— Department of Computer Information Systems Engineering, NED University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi, Pakistanlinkhttps://orcid.org/0009-0009-9166-8949
- Zubair Saeed— Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USAlinkhttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-5302-7133
- Chaudhry Muhammad Ali Nawaz— Department of Creative Technologies, Software Engineering, Air University, Islamabad, Pakistanlinkhttps://orcid.org/0009-0007-1256-0629
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