INTENSITY-MODULATED PROTON THERAPY
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Abstract
The therapeutic treatment of a patient using intensity-modulated proton therapy is described. In one example, a method of creating a proton treatment plan is presented that divides volumes of interest into sub-volumes, applies dose constraints to the sub-volumes, finds one or more feasible configurations of a proton therapy system, and selects a proton beam configuration that improves or optimizes one or more aspects of proton therapy. In some implementations, the method of dividing volumes into sub-volumes includes creating fractional sub-volumes based at least in part on proximity to a target volume boundary. In some implementations, the method of finding an improved or optimal proton beam configuration from a set of feasible configurations includes finding a minimum of a cost function that utilizes weighting factors associated with treatment sites.
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Citations
21 Claims
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1. (canceled)
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2. A method for performing intensity-modulated ion therapy, the method comprising:
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generating a representation of a patient by; for a plurality of ions, estimating a path taken by each ion within the patient based at least in part on trajectories determined from measured data; determining a system of equations of the form Ax=b where x represents a distribution parameter associated with the patient, b represents interaction quantities of the plurality of ions resulting from interactions within the patient, and A represents an operator that operates on x to yield b, the operating having information about the estimated paths of the plurality of ions in the patient; determining one or more feasible solutions to the system of equations by perturbing an estimated initial solution to determine whether the perturbation yields a superior reconstruction than a non-perturbed solution; and calculating the distribution parameter associated with the patient; identifying a volume of interest from the representation of the patient, the volume of interest divided into a total number of voxels ordered according to distance to a feature of interest; defining a plurality of sub-volumes wherein a sub-volume comprises a number of consecutive ordered voxels, wherein a ratio of the number consecutive ordered voxels comprising the sub-volume to the total number of voxels is approximately equal to a target fractional value for the sub-volume; and generating an ion treatment plan that satisfies dose constraints for each of the plurality of sub-volumes. - View Dependent Claims (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. An intensity-modulated ion therapy system comprising:
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an ion delivery system configured to deliver a plurality of ions according to an ion treatment plan; a computed tomography system configured to generate a representation of a patient, the computed tomography system comprising a hardware processor configured to; for a plurality of ions, estimate a path taken by each ion within the patient based at least in part on trajectories determined from measured data; determine a system of equations of the form Ax=b where x represents a distribution parameter associated with the patient, b represents interaction quantities of the plurality of ions resulting from interactions within the patient, and A represents an operator that operates on x to yield b, the operating having information about the estimated paths of the plurality of ions in the patient; determine one or more feasible solutions to the system of equations by perturbing an estimated initial solution to determine whether the perturbation yields a superior reconstruction than a non-perturbed solution; and calculate the distribution parameter associated with the patient; and a treatment plan system configured to generate the ion treatment plan, the treatment plan system comprising a hardware processor configured to; identify a volume of interest from the representation of the patient, the volume of interest divided into a total number of voxels ordered according to distance to a feature of interest; define a plurality of sub-volumes wherein a sub-volume comprises a number of consecutive ordered voxels, wherein a ratio of the number consecutive ordered voxels comprising the sub-volume to the total number of voxels is approximately equal to a target fractional value for the sub-volume; and generate the ion treatment plan that satisfies dose constraints for each of the plurality of sub-volumes. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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Specification