Dosimetry techniques for radiotherapy
AssigneeElekta Limited
InventorAbdul Sayeed
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Embodiments of the present disclosure provide improved techniques for dosimetry in radiotherapy treatment. In a fractionated radiotherapy treatment, once the first fraction is complete and has been verified, data is generated which is representative of the dose development during delivery of the treatment for that patient and that treatment plan. This data can be used as a comparator for the instantaneous doses observed during subsequent fractions, allowing real-time dosimetry verification for the second and subsequent fractions after a successful first fraction.
Claims19
A radiotherapy apparatus comprising:
- a source of therapeutic radiation for delivering a dose to a patient;
- a detector for detecting the therapeutic radiation after attenuation by the patient;
- and
- a control unit having a processor configured to execute computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the control unit to be configured to:
- receive a sequence of dose delivery instructions;
- receive patient data describing a patient geometry;
- cause the apparatus to perform the dose delivery instructions a first time and receive first information from the detector, the first information comprising a first delivered radiation fluence;
- perform a first computational analysis, based on the received first information and the patient data, to determine a first dose distribution;
- subsequent to completion of the first computational analysis, cause the apparatus to perform the dose delivery instructions a second time;
- and
- during the second performance of the dose delivery instructions:
- receive second information from the detector including a second delivered radiation fluence;
- perform a second computational analysis based on the received second information and the patient data to determine a second dose distribution;
- compare the second dose distribution to the first dose distribution;
- and
- provide an alert signal based on the comparison.
A computer-implemented method for delivering a dose of therapeutic radiation from a source to a patient, the method performed by a processor and comprising:
- receiving a sequence of dose delivery instructions;
- receiving patient data describing a patient geometry;
- performing the dose delivery instructions a first time;
- receiving first information from the detector, the first information comprising a first delivered radiation fluence;
- performing a first computational analysis, based on the received first information and the patient data, to determine a first dose distribution;
- performing the dose delivery instructions a second time after the first computational analysis is complete;
- receiving second information from a detector, the second information comprising a second delivered radiation fluence;
- performing a second computational analysis based on the received second information and the patient data to determine a second dose distribution;
- comparing the second dose distribution to the first dose distribution;
- and
- providing an alert signal based on the comparison.
A radiotherapy apparatus for delivering a dose of therapeutic radiation to a patient, comprising a control unit having a processor configured to execute computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the control unit to be configured to:
- receive a sequence of dose delivery instructions;
- receive patient data including a patient geometry;
- cause the apparatus to perform the dose delivery instructions a first time;
- receive first information, including a first delivered radiation fluence, from a detector;
- perform a first computational analysis based on the received first information and the patient data to determine a first dose distribution;
- cause the apparatus to perform the dose delivery instructions a second time;
- receive second information, including a second delivered radiation fluence, from the detector;
- perform a second computational analysis based on the received second information and the patient data to determine a second dose distribution;
- compare the second dose distribution to the first dose distribution;
- and
- provide an alert signal based on the comparison.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.