Guided charged particle imaging/treatment apparatus and method of use thereof
OwnerW. Davis Lee, Mark R. Amato +1inventors
InventorsW. Davis Lee, Mark R. Amato, Susan L. Michaud
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Abstract
The invention comprises a method and apparatus for tracking and/or imaging impact of a particle beam treating a tumor using one or more imaging systems positionable about the tumor, such as a positron emission tracking and/or imaging system, where resulting tracking/imaging data: dynamically determines a treatment beam position, tracks a history of treatment beam positions, guides the treatment beam, and/or images a tumor before, during, and/or after treatment with the charged particle beam.
Claims20
A method for imaging a tumor of a patient and treating the tumor with positively charged particles, comprising the steps of:
- transporting the positively charged particles from a synchrotron, along a beam transport line, and through an exit nozzle system to a treatment beam path;
- imaging the tumor using an imaging system, said step of imaging the tumor further comprising the steps of:
- rotating a rotatable ring around a longitudinal axis of the patient;
- rotating said imaging system around the patient using rotation of said rotatable ring;
- and
- translating, through relative motion of the patient and said imaging system mounted to said rotatable ring, said imaging system past the tumor;
- and
- controlling the treatment beam path using image data from said imaging system.
An apparatus for imaging and treating a tumor of a patient with positively charged particles, comprising:
- a treatment beam path from a synchrotron, along a beam transport line, and through a nozzle system;
- an imaging system, comprising:
- a rotatable ring around a longitudinal axis of a laying patient position;
- an imaging system mounted indirectly to said rotatable ring, said rotatable ring configured to rotate said imaging system around the patient during use;
- and
- said imaging system mounted to said rotatable ring using a set of mounting rails, said imaging system configured to translate, through relative motion of the patient and said imaging system mounted to said rotatable ring, past the tumor during use;
- and
- a main controller configured to control the treatment beam path using image data from said imaging system during use.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.