ION RADIATION THERAPY SYSTEM WITH VARIABLE BEAM RESOLUTION
First Claim
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1. An ion therapy machine comprising:
- an ion source for producing an ion beam traveling along an axis;
means for varying a lateral width of the ion beam perpendicular to the axis as a function of a control signal;
means for varying an axial extent of the beams when steered to portions of the patient according to a control signal;
means for steering a center of the ion beam to different portions of a patient according in both lateral and axial dimensions to a control signal; and
a beam controller executing a stored radiation plan to communicate control signals to the means for varying a lateral width, the means for varying an axial extent and the means for steering the ion beam, to provide a radiation treatment to the patient by applying ion beams of different widths to different portions of the patient.
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Abstract
An ion radiation therapy machine provides a steerable beam for treating a tumor within the patient where the exposure spot of the beam is controlled in width and/or length to effect a flexible trade-off between treatment speed, accuracy, and uniformity.
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Citations
14 Claims
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1. An ion therapy machine comprising:
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an ion source for producing an ion beam traveling along an axis; means for varying a lateral width of the ion beam perpendicular to the axis as a function of a control signal; means for varying an axial extent of the beams when steered to portions of the patient according to a control signal; means for steering a center of the ion beam to different portions of a patient according in both lateral and axial dimensions to a control signal; and a beam controller executing a stored radiation plan to communicate control signals to the means for varying a lateral width, the means for varying an axial extent and the means for steering the ion beam, to provide a radiation treatment to the patient by applying ion beams of different widths to different portions of the patient. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A method of ion therapy planning comprising the steps of:
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(a) determining a dose plan with respect to a region of a patient; (b) optimizing intensities of a first set of beams having a first beam spot size by iteratively modifying first initialization values of the first set of beams to provide optimized values of the first set of beams such as produce a dose converging to the dose plan; (c) optimizing intensities of a second set of beams having a second beam spot size smaller than the first beam spot size by iteratively modifying second initialization values of the second set of beams and the optimized values of the second set of beams to provide optimized values of the first and second set of beams producing a new dose better converging to the dose plan. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A method of radiation treatment with an ion beam traveling along an axis comprising the steps of:
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executing a stored radiation treatment plan to; (a) vary a lateral width of the ion beam perpendicular to the axis according to beam width data in the radiation treatment plan; (b) vary an axial extent of the ion beam along the axis according to beam extent data in the radiation treatment plan; (c) steer the axis of the ion beam to different portions of a patient according to beam location data in the radiation treatment plan; whereby ion beams of different widths and extents are applied to at least two different portions of the patient.
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Specification