Controlling particle therapy

• US 10,155,124 B2
• Filed: 09/14/2016
• Issued: 12/18/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mevion Medical Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Mevion Medical Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Gall, Kenneth P., Rosenthal, Stanley J., Sobczynski, Thomas C., Molzahn, Adam C., O'Neal, Charles D., Cooley, James
• Primary Examiner(s): Owens, Douglas W
• Assistant Examiner(s): Sathiraju, Srinivas
• Application Number:
  US15/265,326
• Publication Number:
  US 20170014649A1
• Time in Patent Office: 825 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/44 Applying ionised fluids ion generators H01J37/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 2005/005 for cooling the radiator
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 2005/1087 Ions; Protons
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 2005/1095 Elements inserted into the radiation path within the system, e.g. filters or wedges
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 5/1045 using a multi-leaf collimator, e.g. for intensity modulated radiation therapy or IMRT
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 5/1049 for verifying the position of the patient with respect to the radiation beam
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 5/1071 for verifying the dose delivered by the treatment plan
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 5/1077 Beam delivery systems
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 5/1081 Rotating beam systems with a specific mechanical construction, e.g. gantries
• CPC Class Codes: H05H 13/02 Synchrocyclotrons, i.e. frequency modulated cyclotrons
• CPC Class Codes: H05H 2007/004 for modifying beam energy, e.g. spread out Bragg peak devices
• CPC Class Codes: H05H 7/12 Arrangements for varying final energy of beam

Abstract

An example particle therapy system includes the following: a gantry that is rotatable relative to a patient position; a particle accelerator mounted to the gantry, where the particle accelerator is for outputting a particle beam essentially directly to the patient position; and a control system to receive a prescription and to generate machine instructions for configuring one or more operational characteristics of the particle therapy system. At least one of the operational characteristics relates to a rotational angle of the gantry relative to the patient position.

Claims

1. A particle therapy system comprising:

a gantry that is rotatable relative to a patient position;

a particle accelerator mounted to the gantry, the particle accelerator for outputting a particle beam;

a scanning system that is controllable to move the particle beam across at least part of an irradiation target in a patient at the patient position; and

a control system for controlling operational characteristics of the particle therapy system, at least one of the operational characteristics to compensate for an effect of gravity caused by a rotational angle of the gantry, at least one of the operational characteristics relating to the scanning system.

2. The particle therapy system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the operational characteristics comprises an angular position of the gantry.

3. The particle therapy system of claim 1, wherein the particle accelerator comprises a particle source to provide pulses of ionized plasma to a cavity, a pulse of the particle source having a pulse width corresponding to a duration of operation of the particle source to produce the pulse;

and

wherein at least one of the operational characteristics comprises a multiplier that is based on a rotational position of the gantry and that that is applied to the pulse width.

4. The particle therapy system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the operational characteristics comprises a dosage of particles output by the particle accelerator.

5. The particle therapy system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the operational characteristics comprises a dose rate of particles output by the particle accelerator.

6. The particle therapy system of claim 5, wherein the particle accelerator comprises a particle source to provide pulses of ionized plasma to a cavity, each pulse of the particle source having a pulse width corresponding to a duration of operation of the particle source to produce the corresponding pulse;

wherein controlling the dose rate comprises varying pulse widths of pulses comprising the particle beam.

7. The particle therapy system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the operational characteristics comprises a position of a patient.

8. The particle therapy system of claim 7, further comprising:

a structure on which the patient lies, the structure corresponding to the patient position;

wherein controlling the position of the patient comprises moving the structure relative to one or more coordinate positions.

9. The particle therapy system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the operational characteristics comprises spot size of a particle beam output by the particle accelerator.

10. The particle therapy system of claim 1, at least one of the operational characteristics comprises an energy level of a particle beam output by the particle accelerator.

11. The particle therapy system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the operational characteristics comprises a shape of a particle beam applied to the patient.

12. The particle therapy system of claim 11, further comprising an aperture to limit an extent of the particle beam reaching the patient;

wherein controlling the shape of particle beam comprises configuring the aperture.

13. The particle therapy system of claim 1, wherein the control system comprises one or more computing devices programmed to control elements of the particle therapy system based on machine instructions.

14. The particle therapy system of claim 1, wherein controlling the operational characteristics of the particle therapy system is performed using open-loop control.

15. The particle therapy system of claim 1, wherein controlling the operational characteristics of the particle therapy system is performed using closed-loop control.

16. The particle therapy system of claim 1, wherein controlling the operational characteristics of the particle therapy system comprises adjusting a position of a microabsorber wheel, adjusting a magnetic current of a superconducting magnet in the particle accelerator, and changing a pulse width of particles pulse output from the accelerator.

17. The particle therapy system of claim 1, wherein the particle accelerator comprises an extraction channel to output the particle beam to the patient;

and

wherein controlling the operational characteristics of the particle therapy system comprises adjusting a position of a microabsorber wheel, the microabsorber wheel being at an entry point to the extraction channel.

18. The particle therapy system of claim 1, wherein controlling comprises reading an operational parameter from a look-up table and using the operational parameter to control at least one component of the scanning system.

19. The particle therapy system of claim 1, wherein controlling the operational characteristics of the particle therapy system comprises adjusting a magnetic current of a superconducting magnet in the particle accelerator.

20. The particle therapy system of claim 1, wherein the scanning system comprises a scanning magnet, the scanning magnet comprises multiple coils.

21. The particle therapy system of claim 1, wherein the scanning system comprises an ion chamber;

and

wherein the ion chamber is configured to feed-back a dosage to the control system, the control system comprising one or more processing devices to determine if the dosage is an intended dosage.

22. The particle therapy system of claim 21, wherein, if the dosage is not the intended dosage, the control system is configured to control the particle accelerator to interrupt production of the particle beam, to interrupt an output of the particle beam, or to interrupt both a production of the particle beam or an output of the particle beam.

23. The particle therapy system of claim 21, wherein, if the dosage is not the intended dosage, the control system is configured to alter operation of the particle accelerator.

24. The particle therapy system of claim 21, wherein, if the dosage is not the intended dosage, the control system is configured to control a scanning magnet to affect output of the particle beam.

25. The particle therapy system of claim 21, wherein, if the dosage is not the intended dosage, the control system is configured to control a scanning magnet to prevent output of the particle beam.