Multi-mode cone beam CT radiotherapy simulator and treatment machine with a flat panel imager
CAFCFirst Claim
Patent Images
1. An apparatus, comprising:
- a radiation treatment system capable of implementing a treatment plan, the system comprising;
a frame;
a rotatable gantry coupled to the frame;
a high-energy radiation source coupled to the rotatable gantry to radiate a patient with therapeutic radiation;
a cone-beam radiation source coupled to the rotatable gantry to radiate the patient;
a flat-panel imager coupled to the rotatable gantry, wherein the flat-panel imager is operable to capture image projection data of the patient from the cone-beam radiation source to generate cone-beam computed tomography (CT) volumetric image data of the patient; and
a computing unit, coupled to the rotatable gantry via a communications network, to store the image projection data captured by the flat-panel imager.
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Abstract
A multi-mode cone beam computed tomography radiotherapy simulator and treatment machine is disclosed. The radiotherapy simulator and treatment machine both include a rotatable gantry on which is positioned a cone-beam radiation source and a flat panel imager. The flat panel imager captures x-ray image data to generate cone-beam CT volumetric images used to generate a therapy patient position setup and a treatment plan.
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Citations
77 Claims
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1. An apparatus, comprising:
a radiation treatment system capable of implementing a treatment plan, the system comprising; a frame; a rotatable gantry coupled to the frame; a high-energy radiation source coupled to the rotatable gantry to radiate a patient with therapeutic radiation; a cone-beam radiation source coupled to the rotatable gantry to radiate the patient; a flat-panel imager coupled to the rotatable gantry, wherein the flat-panel imager is operable to capture image projection data of the patient from the cone-beam radiation source to generate cone-beam computed tomography (CT) volumetric image data of the patient; and a computing unit, coupled to the rotatable gantry via a communications network, to store the image projection data captured by the flat-panel imager. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. An apparatus, comprising:
a radiation treatment system capable of implementing a treatment plan, the system comprising; a frame; a rotatable gantry coupled to the frame; a high-energy radiation source coupled to the rotatable gantry to radiate a patient with therapeutic radiation; a cone-beam radiation source coupled to the rotatable gantry to radiate the patient; and a flat-panel imager coupled to the rotatable gantry, wherein the flat-panel imager is operable to capture image projection data of the patient from the cone-beam radiation source to generate cone-beam computed tomography (CT) volumetric image data of the patient, wherein the flat-panel imager includes an amorphous silicon sensor array, and wherein the flat-panel imager includes a cesium iodide scintillator for kilovoltage imaging. - View Dependent Claims (12)
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13. An apparatus, comprising:
a radiation treatment system capable of implementing a treatment plan, the system comprising; a frame; a rotatable gantry coupled to the frame; a high-energy radiation source coupled to the rotatable gantry to radiate a patient with therapeutic radiation; a cone-beam radiation source coupled to the rotatable gantry to radiate the patient; and a flat-panel imager coupled to the rotatable gantry, wherein the flat-panel imager is operable to capture image projection data of the patient from the cone-beam radiation source to generate cone-beam computed tomography (CT) volumetric image data of the patient, wherein the flat-panel imager is capable of generating image projection data at 15 to 30 frames per second.
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14. An apparatus, comprising:
a radiation treatment system capable of implementing a treatment plan, the system comprising; a frame; a rotatable gantry coupled to the frame; a high-energy radiation source coupled to the rotatable gantry to radiate a patient with therapeutic radiation; a cone-beam radiation source coupled to the rotatable gantry to radiate the patient; a flat-panel imager coupled to the rotatable gantry, wherein the flat-panel imager is operable to capture image projection data of the patient from the cone-beam radiation source to generate cone-beam computed tomography (CT) volumetric image data of the patient; and a translatable treatment couch coupled to the rotatable gantry via a communications network. - View Dependent Claims (15)
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16. An apparatus, comprising:
a radiation treatment system capable of implementing a treatment plan, the system comprising; a frame; a rotatable gantry coupled to the frame; a high-energy radiation source coupled to the rotatable gantry to radiate a patient with therapeutic radiation; a cone-beam radiation source coupled to the rotatable gantry to radiate the patient; a flat-panel imager coupled to the rotatable gantry, wherein the flat-panel imager is operable to capture image projection data of the patient from the cone-beam radiation source to generate cone-beam computed tomography (CT) volumetric image data of the patient, wherein the a flat-panel imager is a flat-panel KV imager; and a flat-panel MV portal imager coupled to the rotatable gantry, wherein the MV imager is operable to capture image projection data of the patient produced by the high-energy MV radiation source.
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17. A method to perform a clinical treatment, comprising:
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rotating a gantry pivotably coupled at a pivot point to a frame of a clinical radiation treatment machine capable of implementing a treatment plan; irradiating a patient with a radiation source; using the clinical radiation treatment machine to capture image projection data from a flat-panel imager for generating cone-beam computed tomography (CT) volumetric image data; and modifying a treatment plan for the clinical treatment machine based on the cone-beam volumetric image data. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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26. A method to perform a clinical treatment, comprising:
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rotating a gantry pivotably coupled at a pivot point to a frame of a clinical radiation treatment machine capable of implementing a treatment plan; irradiating a patient with a radiation source; and capturing image projection data from a flat-panel imager using the clinical radiation treatment machine, the image projection data for generating cone-beam computed tomography (CT) volumetric image data, wherein capturing comprises capturing the image projection data at a frame rate in the range of 15-30 frames per second.
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27. A method to perform a clinical treatment, comprising:
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rotating a gantry pivotably coupled at a pivot point to a frame of a clinical radiation treatment machine capable of implementing a treatment plan; irradiating a patient with a radiation source; using the clinical radiation treatment machine to capture image projection data from a flat-panel imager for generating cone-beam computed tomography (CT) volumetric image data, wherein the radiation source is a cone-beam computed tomography radiation source, wherein the image projection data is generated from a flat-panel imager capturing radiation from the cone-beam computed tomography radiation source passing through a target volume; deriving a master clock signal from a synchronization signal of the radiation source; using the master clock signal to generate a first control pulse to gate the radiation source on and off and a second control pulse to trigger reading of an image from the imager; and selecting a timing of the first control pulse as compared to the second control pulse to read out the image while the radiation source is off.
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28. A method to perform a clinical treatment, comprising:
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rotating a gantry pivotably coupled at a pivot point to a frame of a clinical radiation treatment machine capable of implementing a treatment plan; irradiating a patient with a radiation source; using the clinical radiation treatment machine to capture image projection data from a flat-panel imager for generating cone-beam computed tomography (CT) volumetric image data, wherein the radiation source is a cone-beam computed tomography radiation source, wherein the image projection data is generated from a tlat-panel imager capturing radiation from the cone-beam computed tomography radiation source passing through a target volume; continuously rotating the radiation source about the target volume while capturing image projection data; and one of capturing image projection data at non-uniformly spaced angles with respect to the rotation, and changing the speed of rotation of the gantry during a rotation.
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29. A method to perform a clinical treatment, comprising:
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rotating a gantry pivotably coupled at a pivot point to a frame of a clinical radiation treatment machine capable of implementing a treatment plan; irradiating a patient with a radiation source; using the clinical radiation treatment machine to capture image projection data from a flat-panel imager for generating cone-beam computed tomography (CT) volumetric image data, wherein the radiation source is a cone-beam computed tomography radiation source, wherein the image projection data is generated from a flat-panel imager capturing radiation from the cone-beam computed tomography radiation source passing through a target volume; and continuously rotating the radiation source about the target volume while capturing image projection data.
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30. An apparatus, comprising:
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one of a radiation simulation system comprising logic configured to determine a patient position relative to a high-energy radiation treatment beam and a radiation treatment system comprising logic configured to implement a treatment plan for a high-energy radiation treatment, the logic comprising at least one of hardwired logic and a programmable computer component, the system comprising; a frame; a rotatable gantry pivotably coupled to the frame at a pivot point; means for applying a cone-beam computed tomography (CT) radiation beam coupled to the rotatable gantry; and means for capturing image projection data with a flat-panel imager, coupled to the rotatable gantry, to generate cone-beam computed tomography (CT) volumetric image data of a patient'"'"'s anatomy. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45)
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46. A machine-readable medium selected from the group consisting of solid-state memories, optical disks, and magnetic disks;
- the machine-readable medium having instructions to cause a machine to perform a method to perform a clinical treatment, the method comprising;
rotating a gantry pivotably coupled at a pivot point to a frame of a clinical radiation treatment machine capable of implementing a treatment plan; irradiating a patient with a radiation source; and instructing the clinical radiation treatment machine to capture image projection data from a flat-panel imager for generating cone-beam computed tomography (CT) volumetric image data. - View Dependent Claims (47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52)
- the machine-readable medium having instructions to cause a machine to perform a method to perform a clinical treatment, the method comprising;
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53. An apparatus, comprising:
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a clinical radiation treatment system capable of implementing a treatment plan, the system comprising; a frame; a rotatable gantry coupled to the frame; a high-energy radiation source coupled to the rotatable gantry to radiate a patient with therapeutic radiation; a cone-beam radiation source coupled to the rotatable gantry to radiate the patient; and a flat-panel imager coupled to the rotatable gantry, wherein the flat-panel imager captures fluoroscopic or cone-beam CT imaging image projection data of the patient from the cone-beam radiation source to generate fluoroscopic or cone-beam computed tomography (CT) volumetric image data of the patient. - View Dependent Claims (54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62)
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63. An apparatus, comprising:
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a radiation treatment simulation system comprising logic configured to determine a patient position relative to a high-energy radiation treatment beam, the logic comprising at least one of hardwired logic and a programmable computer component, the system comprising; a frame; a rotatable gantry pivotably coupled to the frame at a pivot point; a cone-beam imaging radiation source coupled to the rotatable gantry to radiate a patient; and a flat-panel imager coupled to the rotatable gantry, wherein the flat-panel imager is operable to capture image projection data of the patient to generate cone-beam computed tomography (CT) volumetric image data of the patient. - View Dependent Claims (64, 65, 66, 67)
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68. A method to perform a clinical treatment simulation, comprising:
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rotating a gantry pivotably coupled at a pivot point to a frame of a clinical treatment simulator machine comprising logic configured to implement a treatment plan for a high-energy radiation treatment beam, the logic comprising at least one of hardwired logic and a programmable computer component; irradiating a patient with a radiation source; and using the clinical treatment simulator machine to capture image projection data from a flat-panel imager for generating cone-beam computed tomography (CT) volumetric image data. - View Dependent Claims (69, 70, 71, 72, 73)
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74. A method to perform a clinical treatment simulation, comprising:
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rotating a gantry pivotably coupled at a pivot point to a frame of a clinical simulator machine comprising logic configured to determine a patient position relative to a high-energy radiation treatment beam, the logic comprising at least one of hardwired logic and a programmable computer component; irradiating a patient with a radiation source; and using the clinical simulator machine to capture fluoroscopic or cone-beam CT imaging image projection data from a flat-panel imager for generating fluoroscopic or cone-beam computed tomography (CT) volumetric image data. - View Dependent Claims (75, 76, 77)
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Specification