Controlling particle therapy

• US 9,545,528 B2
• Filed: 09/27/2013
• Issued: 01/17/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mevion Medical Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Mevion Medical Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Gall, Kenneth P., Rosenthal, Stanley, Sobczynski, Thomas C., Molzahn, Adam C., O'Neal, Charles D. III, Cooley, James
• Primary Examiner(s): Owens, Douglas W
• Assistant Examiner(s): Sathiraju, Srinivas
• Application Number:
  US14/038,888
• Publication Number:
  US 20140094643A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,208 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/44 Applying ionised fluids ion generators H01J37/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 2005/005 for cooling the radiator
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 2005/1087 Ions; Protons
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 2005/1095 Elements inserted into the radiation path within the system, e.g. filters or wedges
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 5/1045 using a multi-leaf collimator, e.g. for intensity modulated radiation therapy or IMRT
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 5/1049 for verifying the position of the patient with respect to the radiation beam
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 5/1071 for verifying the dose delivered by the treatment plan
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 5/1077 Beam delivery systems
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 5/1081 Rotating beam systems with a specific mechanical construction, e.g. gantries
• CPC Class Codes: H05H 13/02 Synchrocyclotrons, i.e. frequency modulated cyclotrons
• CPC Class Codes: H05H 2007/004 for modifying beam energy, e.g. spread out Bragg peak devices
• CPC Class Codes: H05H 7/12 Arrangements for varying final energy of beam

Abstract

An example particle therapy system includes the following: a gantry that is rotatable relative to a patient position; a particle accelerator mounted to the gantry, where the particle accelerator is for outputting a particle beam essentially directly to the patient position; and a control system to receive a prescription and to generate machine instructions for configuring one or more operational characteristics of the particle therapy system. At least one of the operational characteristics relates to a rotational angle of the gantry relative to the patient position.

Claims

1. A particle therapy system comprising:

a gantry that is rotatable relative to a patient position;

a particle accelerator mounted to the gantry, the particle accelerator for outputting a particle beam to the patient position; and

a control system to generate machine instructions for configuring operational characteristics of the particle therapy system, at least one of the operational characteristics relating to, or being affected by, a rotational angle of the gantry relative to the patient position;

wherein configuring the operational characteristics of the particle therapy system comprises adjusting a position of a microabsorber wheel, adjusting a magnetic current of a superconducting magnet in the particle accelerator, and changing a pulse width of particle pulses output from the accelerator.

2. The particle therapy system of claim 1, wherein the at least one of the operational characteristics comprises the rotational angle of the gantry.

3. The particle therapy system of claim 1, further comprising a particle source to provide the particle pulses to a cavity, the particle pulses comprising pulses of ionized plasma, a particle pulse of the particle source having a pulse width corresponding to a duration of operation of the particle source to produce the particle pulse;

and

wherein changing a pulse width of particle pulses comprises applying a multiplier to the pulse width that is based on the rotational angle of the gantry.

4. The particle therapy system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the operational characteristics comprises a dosage of particles output by the particle accelerator.

5. The particle therapy system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the operational characteristics comprises a dose rate of particles output by the particle accelerator.

6. The particle therapy system of claim 5, further comprising:

a particle source to provide the particle pulses to a cavity, the particle pulses comprising pulses of ionized plasma, each particle pulse having a pulse width corresponding to a duration of operation of the particle source to produce the corresponding particle pulse; and

a modulator wheel having different thicknesses, each thickness extending across a different circumferential length of the modulator wheel;

wherein configuring the dose rate comprises varying pulse widths based on rotational position of the modulator wheel.

7. The particle therapy system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the operational characteristics comprises a position of a patient.

8. The particle therapy system of claim 7, further comprising:

a structure on which the patient lies, the structure corresponding to the patient position;

wherein configuring the position of the patient comprises moving the structure relative to one or more coordinate positions.

9. The particle therapy system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the operational characteristics comprises field size of a particle beam output by the particle accelerator.

10. The particle therapy system of claim 9, further comprising:

scattering devices having different configurations for changing the field size of the particle beam;

wherein configuring the field size comprises selecting one of the scattering devices to move into a path of the particle beam, and moving the selected scattering device into the path of the particle beam.

11. The particle therapy system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the operational characteristics comprises depth of a particle beam output by the particle accelerator.

12. The particle therapy system of claim 11, further comprising:

an absorber having different thicknesses for absorbing particle beam;

wherein configuring the depth comprises controlling the absorber so as to place a specific thickness in a path of the particle beam.

13. The particle therapy system of claim 11, further comprising:

modulator wheels, each modulator wheel having different thicknesses, each thickness of a modulator wheel extending across a different circumferential length of the modulator wheel;

wherein configuring the depth comprises selecting a modulator wheel to move into a path of the particle beam.

14. The particle therapy system of claim 13, further comprising:

a particle source to provide the particle pulses to a cavity, the particle pulses comprising pulses of ionized plasma, each particle pulse having a pulse width corresponding to a duration of operation of the particle source to produce the corresponding pulse;

wherein configuring the depth further comprises selecting a file containing instructions for varying the pulse width based on a rotational position of a selected modulator wheel.

15. The particle therapy system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the operational characteristics comprises an extent of a depth of a particle beam output by the particle accelerator.

16. The particle therapy system of claim 15, further comprising:

a particle source to provide the particle pulses to a cavity, the particle pulses comprising pulses of ionized plasma, each particle pulse having a pulse width corresponding to a duration of operation of the particle source to produce the corresponding pulse; and

a modulator wheel having different thicknesses, each thickness extending across a different circumferential length of the modulator wheel;

wherein configuring the extent of the depth of a particle beam comprises turning-off the particle source at specific rotational positions of the modulator wheel.

17. The particle therapy system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the operational characteristics comprises a shape of a particle beam output by the particle accelerator.

18. The particle therapy system of claim 17, further comprising one or more apertures corresponding to different shapes;

wherein configuring the shape of particle beam comprises selecting one of the apertures and moving the aperture selected into a path of the particle beam.

19. The particle therapy system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the operational characteristics comprises a depth-wise shape of a particle beam output by the particle accelerator.

20. The particle therapy system of claim 19, further comprising a range compensating bolus;

wherein configuring the depth-wise shape of particle beam comprises moving the range compensating bolus into a path of the particle beam.

21. The particle therapy system of claim 1, wherein the control system comprises one or more computing devices programmed to control elements of the particle therapy system that control the operational characteristics based on the machine instructions.

22. The particle therapy system of claim 1, wherein the particle therapy system comprises a scanning system, and wherein one or more of the operational characteristics relate to the scanning system.

23. The particle therapy system of claim 1, wherein configuring one or more operational characteristics of the particle therapy system is performed using open-loop control.

24. The particle therapy system of claim 1, wherein configuring one or more operational characteristics of the particle therapy system is performed using closed-loop control.