METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR THE PLANNING AND DELIVERY OF RADIATION TREATMENTS
First Claim
1. A method for planning delivery of radiation dose to a target area within a subject, the method comprising:
- defining a set of one or more optimization goals, the set of one or more optimization goals comprising a desired dose distribution in the subject;
specifying an initial plurality of control points along an initial trajectory, the initial trajectory involving relative movement between a radiation source and the subject in a source trajectory direction; and
iteratively optimizing a simulated dose distribution relative to the set of one or more optimization goals to determine one or more radiation delivery parameters associated with each of the initial plurality of control points;
wherein, for each of the initial plurality of control points, the one or more radiation delivery parameters comprise positions of a plurality of leaves of a multi-leaf collimator (MLC), the plurality of leaves moveable in a leaf-translation direction; and
wherein during relative movement between the radiation source and the subject along the initial trajectory, the leaf-translation direction is oriented at a MLC orientation angle φ
with respect to the source trajectory direction and wherein an absolute value of the MLC orientation angle φ
satisfies 0°
<
|φ
|<
90°
.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Methods and apparatus are provided for planning and delivering radiation treatments by modalities which involve moving a radiation source along a trajectory relative to a subject while delivering radiation to the subject. In some embodiments the radiation source is moved continuously along the trajectory while in some embodiments the radiation source is moved intermittently. Some embodiments involve the optimization of the radiation delivery plan to meet various optimization goals while meeting a number of constraints. For each of a number of control points along a trajectory, a radiation delivery plan may comprise: a set of motion axes parameters, a set of beam shape parameters and a beam intensity.
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Citations
34 Claims
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1. A method for planning delivery of radiation dose to a target area within a subject, the method comprising:
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defining a set of one or more optimization goals, the set of one or more optimization goals comprising a desired dose distribution in the subject; specifying an initial plurality of control points along an initial trajectory, the initial trajectory involving relative movement between a radiation source and the subject in a source trajectory direction; and iteratively optimizing a simulated dose distribution relative to the set of one or more optimization goals to determine one or more radiation delivery parameters associated with each of the initial plurality of control points; wherein, for each of the initial plurality of control points, the one or more radiation delivery parameters comprise positions of a plurality of leaves of a multi-leaf collimator (MLC), the plurality of leaves moveable in a leaf-translation direction; and
wherein during relative movement between the radiation source and the subject along the initial trajectory, the leaf-translation direction is oriented at a MLC orientation angle φ
with respect to the source trajectory direction and wherein an absolute value of the MLC orientation angle φ
satisfies 0°
<
|φ
|<
90°
.- View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A method for delivering radiation dose to a target area within a subject, the method comprising:
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defining a trajectory for relative movement between a treatment radiation source and the subject in a source trajectory direction; determining a radiation delivery plan; while effecting relative movement between the treatment radiation source and the subject along the trajectory in the source trajectory direction, delivering a treatment radiation beam from the treatment radiation source to the subject according to the radiation delivery plan to impart a dose distribution on the subject; wherein delivering the treatment radiation beam from the treatment radiation source to the subject comprises varying at least one of;
an intensity of the treatment radiation beam; and
a shape of the treatment radiation beam over at least a portion of the trajectory.- View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34)
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Specification