System and Method for Radiation Therapy Treatment Planning

A system for radiation treatment therapy planning, comprising:

• a data processor receiving a set of imaging data;
• said data processor further comprising a Graphical User Interface (GUI) active to provide images found within said set of imaging data and to provide interaction with said images to one or more medical practitioners;
• one or more areas within said images identified as target volumes for radiation treatment and healthy organs and tissues;
• said medical practitioners utilizing node-based functions to provide modifications to said one or more target volumes to identify Organs-at-Rick (OARs);
• said data processor providing node-based functions as node-based operations that include margin expansions, Boolean operations, derived structures, and algorithmic methods;
• said data processor updating said target volumes for radiation treatment and healthy organs and tissues with one or more of said medical practitioners provided modifications to create one or more original planned treatment volumes to be subject to radiation treatment therapy;
• said data processor updating said one or more original planned treatment volumes utilizing said node-based operations to expand upon the original planned treatment volumes to generate more accurate specialized radiation treatment planning structures for said original planned treatment volume;
• one or more of said medical practitioners approving a radiation treatment plan expressed in said specialized radiation treatment planning structures and storing said approved radiation treatment plan in electronic storage maintained within said data processor;
• said data processor operative to optimize a radiation dose delivery for a particular patient based upon the generated specialized radiation treatment planning structures;
• said data processor performing dosimetric verification analysis through the use of physical tests and computer simulations to increase confidence that the planned radiation dose delivery is accurately delivered by a treatment machine to be used to deliver radiation treatment therapy;
• said data processor delivering said approved radiation treatment plan to said treatment machine where the treatment machine provides the radiation therapy expressed in the approved radiation treatment plan to said particular patient.