Treatment planning system and method for radiotherapy
First Claim
1. A method of optimizing a treatment plan for irradiating a treatment volume within a patient from a plurality of angles, comprising:
- (a) making with a computing system a substantially complete dose calculation using a first dose calculation algorithm, and(b) thereafter, making with the computing system at least one incremental dose calculation using a second dose calculation algorithm that is different from said first dose calculation algorithm.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A treatment planning method and system for optimizing a treatment plan used to irradiate a treatment volume including a target volume, such as a tumor, is disclosed. According to the method, two dose calculation algorithms are used to develop the optimized treatment plan. A first dose calculation algorithm is used to obtain substantially complete dose calculations and a second, incremental, dose calculation algorithm is used to make more limited calculations. The incremental calculations may be performed, for example, with less precision, less accuracy or less scope (e.g., focused on a specific subvolume within the treatment volume) in order to reduce the time required to achieve an optimized plan. Each of the dose calculation algorithms may be iterated a plurality of times, and different cutoff criteria can be used to limit the number of iterations in a given pass. A treatment planning system of the invention uses software for implementing the complete and incremental dose calculation algorithms. The method and system are especially useful for IMRT and arc therapy where treatment plan optimization is particularly challenging.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method of optimizing a treatment plan for irradiating a treatment volume within a patient from a plurality of angles, comprising:
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(a) making with a computing system a substantially complete dose calculation using a first dose calculation algorithm, and (b) thereafter, making with the computing system at least one incremental dose calculation using a second dose calculation algorithm that is different from said first dose calculation algorithm. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A method of optimizing a treatment plan for irradiating a treatment volume within a patient from a plurality of angles, comprising:
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(a) obtaining with a computing system an initial dose calculation, (b) thereafter, iteratively making with the computing system dose calculations using a first algorithm until a first cut-off criterion is fulfilled, and (c) thereafter, iteratively making with the computing system dose calculations using a second algorithm until a second cut-off criterion is fulfilled, wherein said first and second cut-off criteria are different, and wherein said first and second dose calculation algorithms are different. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15)
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16. A method of optimizing a treatment plan for irradiating a treatment volume within a patient from a plurality of angles, comprising:
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(a) obtaining with a computing system an initial dose calculation, (b) thereafter, iteratively making with the computing system dose calculations using a first algorithm until a first cut-off criterion is fulfilled, and (c) thereafter, iteratively making with the computing system dose calculations using a second algorithm until a second cut-off criterion is fulfilled, wherein said first and second cut-off criteria are different, wherein said first and second dose calculation algorithms are different, wherein one of steps (b) or (c) is a stochastic algorithm and the other is a deterministic algorithm. - View Dependent Claims (17)
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18. A treatment planning system comprising a computing system having software stored on a tangible medium for optimizing a treatment plan for irradiating a treatment volume using a radiation therapy system, said radiation system being capable of irradiating said treatment volume from a plurality of angles, said software comprising:
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a first dose calculation algorithm for iteratively performing substantially complete dose calculations until a first cutoff criterion is reached, based on input data comprising information about the treatment volume and further based on information about the capabilities of the radiation therapy system, a second dose calculation algorithm for iteratively performing incremental dose calculations until a second cutoff criterion is reached. - View Dependent Claims (19)
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20. A non-transitory tangible computer-readable storage medium having treatment planning software stored thereon, the treatment planning software for optimizing a treatment plan for irradiating a treatment volume using a radiation therapy system, said radiation system being capable of irradiating said treatment volume from a plurality of angles, said software comprising:
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(a) instructions for causing the radiation system to make a substantially complete dose calculation using a first dose calculation algorithm, and (b) instructions for causing the radiation system to, thereafter, make at least one incremental dose calculation using a second dose calculation algorithm that is different from said first dose calculation algorithm.
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Specification