Method and apparatus for measuring, verifying, and displaying progress of dose delivery in scanned beam particle therapy

• US 10,092,777 B2
• Filed: 05/11/2017
• Issued: 10/09/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/22/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pyramid Technical Consultants, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Pyramid Technical Consultants, Inc.
• Inventors: Boisseau, Raymond Paul, Nett, William P., Gordon, John S., Kollipara, Sashidar, Kozlov, Yuriy
• Primary Examiner(s): Vanore, David A
• Application Number:
  US15/593,027
• Publication Number:
  US 20170246479A1
• Time in Patent Office: 516 Days
• Field of Search: 378 65, 378 17, 378 20, 378 4, 378 62, 250306, 250309, 250310, 250311, 2503361, 25036301, 250393, 2504911, 600 1
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 2005/1087 Ions; Protons
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 5/1043 Scanning the radiation beam, e.g. spot scanning or raster scanning
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 5/1067 in real time, i.e. during treatment
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 5/1071 for verifying the dose delivered by the treatment plan

Abstract

The present disclosure is directed to systems and methods for real-time control of a charged particle pencil beam system during therapeutic treatment of a patient. In an aspect, the present disclosure is directed to measuring an actual shape, an actual intensity distribution, and an actual location at isocenter of the charged particle pencil beam. The actual data is compared to model treatment data in real time to determine if a statistically significant variance occurs in which case the charged particle pencil beam can be stopped mid-treatment for correction and/or analysis.

Claims

1. A method for real-time control of a charged particle pencil beam system during therapeutic treatment of a patient, the method comprising:

receiving an image of the charged particle pencil beam during treatment of a target spot;

measuring an actual shape and an actual intensity distribution of the charged particle pencil beam;

determining an actual position of the charged particle pencil beam at an isocenter plane, the actual position corresponding to a location in a pixel of acquired data;

comparing actual data for the target spot with target data for the target spot to form comparison data; and

automatically stopping the therapeutic treatment if the comparison data is greater than a tolerance.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining an active region based on the actual position and the shape of the charged particle pencil beam, the active region comprising at least two pixels; and

comparing each pixel in the active region with a corresponding pixel of the target data to form the comparison data.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

increasing the active region by a gamma radius to define a gamma region;

comparing each pixel in the gamma region with a corresponding pixel of the target data to form the comparison data.

4. The method of claim of claim 3 further comprising:

performing a gamma deviation test on each pixel in the gamma region, the gamma deviation test evaluating whether a pixel in the gamma region of actual data is within a gamma tolerance of a corresponding pixel of the target data.