System and method for radiation therapy using spatial-functional mapping and dose sensitivity of branching structures and functional sub-volumes

A method comprising:

• determining a location of each voxel of a plurality of voxels in a reference frame of a radiation device that emits a beam of radiation with controlled intensity and beam cross sectional shape;
• obtaining measurements that indicate a tissue type inside a subject at each voxel of the plurality of voxels based on an imaging device;
• determining a first subset of the plurality of voxels, wherein the first subset encloses a target volume to be irradiated with a therapeutic dose of radiation by the radiation device;
• determining a plurality of second subsets of the plurality of voxels, wherein each second subset is based on an anatomical parameter of a respective branching structure of a set of branching structures indicated by the measurements;
• determining a third subset of the plurality of voxels, wherein the third subset encloses an organ-at-risk (OAR) volume and the third subset is associated with one or more second subsets;
• determining on a processor a value of a utility measure at each voxel of the plurality of voxels;
• determining, on a processor, data that indicates a series of beam shapes and intensities from the radiation device which minimize a value of an objective function that is based on a computed dose delivered to a voxel and the value of the utility measure for that voxel summed over all voxels;
• and
• controlling the radiation device to deliver the series of beam shapes and intensities based on the determined data;
• wherein each second subset of voxels encloses the respective branching structure, wherein the minimization of the objective function is subject to a maximum constraint on the computed dose to each second subset of voxels and wherein the maximum constraint is based on a maximum value of a probability of collapse of the branching structure enclosed by the second subset of voxels.

A method comprising:

• determining a location of each voxel of a plurality of voxels in a reference frame of a radiation device that emits a beam of radiation with controlled intensity and beam cross sectional shape;
• obtaining measurements that indicate a tissue type inside a subject at each voxel of the plurality of voxels based on an imaging device;
• determining a first subset of the plurality of voxels, wherein the first subset encloses a target volume to be irradiated with a therapeutic dose of radiation by the radiation device;
• determining a plurality of second subsets of the plurality of voxels, wherein each second subset is based on an anatomical parameter of a respective branching structure of a set of branching structures indicated by the measurements;
• determining a third subset of the plurality of voxels, wherein the third subset encloses an organ-at-risk (OAR) volume and the third subset is associated with one or more second subsets;
• determining on a processor a value of a utility measure at each voxel of the plurality of voxels;
• determining, on a processor, data that indicates a series of beam shapes and intensities from the radiation device which minimize a value of an objective function that is based on a computed dose delivered to a voxel and the value of the utility measure for that voxel summed over all voxels;
• controlling the radiation device to deliver the series of beam shapes and intensities based on the determined data;
• and
• determining a fourth subset of the plurality of voxels, wherein the fourth subset encloses an OAR volume different than the OAR volume enclosed by the third subset and the fourth subset is not associated with the one or more second subsets.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions, wherein execution of the one or more sequences of instructions by one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform the steps of:

• receiving measurements from an imaging device that relate to tissue type inside a subject at each voxel of a plurality of voxels;
• determining a first subset of the plurality of voxels that enclose a target volume;
• determining a plurality of second subsets of the plurality of voxels, wherein each second subset is based on an anatomical parameter of a respective branching structure of a set of branching structures indicated by the measurements;
• determining a third subset of the plurality of voxels that enclose an OAR volume, wherein the third subset is associated with one or more second subsets;
• determining a value of a utility measure at each voxel of the plurality of voxels;
• determining data that indicates a series of beam shapes and intensities from a radiation device which minimize a value of an objective function that is based on a computed dose delivered to each voxel and the utility measure for that voxel summed over all voxels;
• and
• controlling the radiation device to deliver the series of beam shapes and intensities based on the determined data.

A system comprising:

• a radiation device to emit a beam of radiation with controlled intensity and beam cross sectional shape in each voxel of a plurality of voxels in a reference frame of the radiation device;
• one or more imaging devices to obtain one or more measurements that relate to tissue type inside a subject at each voxel of the plurality of voxels;
• at least one processor;
• and
• at least one memory including one or more sequence of instructions;
• the at least one memory and the one or more sequence of instructions configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor;
• to receive the one or more measurements from the one or more imaging devices, to determine a first subset of the plurality of voxels that enclose a target volume to be irradiated by the radiation device;
• to determine a plurality of second subsets of the plurality of voxels, wherein each second subset is based on an anatomical parameter of a respective branching structure of a set of branching structures indicated by the measurements;
• to determine a third subset of the plurality of voxels that enclose an organ-at-risk (OAR) volume and the third subset is associated with one or more second subsets;
• to determine a value of a utility measure at each voxel of the plurality of voxels ,
• to determine data that indicates the controlled intensity and beam cross sectional shape in each voxel that minimize a value of an objective function that is based on a computed dose delivered to each voxel and the utility measure for that voxel summed over all voxels and
• to control the radiation device to deliver a series of beam shapes and intensities based on the determined data.