Systems and methods for real time tracking of targets in radiation therapy and other medical applications

In radiation therapy for treating a target within a patient, a method for tracking the target in real time using a marker implanted in the patient at a site relative to the target, the method comprising:

• collecting position data of the marker at a time tn;
• determining the location of the marker in an external reference frame based on the position data;
• providing an objective output indicative of the location of the target to a user interface, a memory device and/or a radiation delivery device within a latency not greater than 2 seconds of time tn;
• repeating the providing procedure at least every 2 seconds.

In radiation therapy for treating a target in a patient, a method of tracking the target, comprising:

• obtaining position data of a marker situated within the patient at a site relative to the target;
• determining a location of the marker in an external reference frame based on the position data;
• and
• providing to a user interface an objective output indicative of the location of the target based on the determined location of the marker at (a) a sufficiently high frequency so that pauses in representations of the target location at the user interface are not readily discernable by a human and (b) a sufficiently low latency to be at least substantially contemporaneous with obtaining the position data of the marker.

A radiation therapy system for treating a target of a patient using a marker implanted in the patient at a site relative to the target, the system comprising:

• a radiation delivery device including a beam generator for generating a beam of ionizing radiation, an isocenter, and an aiming system for directing the beam to the isocenter;
• a detector that obtains position data of the marker at a time tn;
• and
• a computer operatively coupled to the detector to receive the position data, the computer having a computer operable medium that determines a location of the marker based on the position data and provides an objective output indicative of a location of the target to a user interface, a memory device, and/or a radiation delivery device within a latency of not greater than 2 seconds from time tn and at a periodicity of not greater than 2 seconds.

A method of treating a target of a patient with an ionizing radiation, comprising:

• generating a beam of ionizing radiation and directing the beam relative to the target;
• collecting position information of a marker implanted within a patient at a site relative to the target while directing the beam toward the beam isocenter;
• providing an objective output indicative of a location of the target relative to the beam isocenter based on the collected position information;
• and
• correlating the objective output with a parameter of the beam.

A method of treating a target of a patient with an ionizing radiation, comprising:

• generating a beam of ionizing radiation and directing the beam relative to the target with a multi-leaf collimator;
• collecting position information of a marker implanted within a patient at a site relative to the target while directing the beam toward the beam isocenter;
• and
• providing an objective output indicative of a location of the target of the patient based on the collected position information relative to the beam isocenter and controlling a configuration of the multi-leaf collimator based on the objective output.