Automatic planning for radiation dosimetry

A method of automatic dose calculation of radiation dose on a target volume within the body of a patient, including a dose calucation of the radiation dose and an automatic search on said radiation dose, said dose calculation comprising the steps of:

• (a) irradiating the patient with a radiation beam of radiation from a radiation delivery apparatus to represent said target volume and the position of other anatomical objects in said body in a computer data base in a computer means, and represent the beam characteristics of the radiation beam of radiation from the radiation delivery apparatus with respect to said target volume and said anatomical objects as a function of the beam phase space of possible approaches of said radiation beam onto said target volume and said anatomical objects;
• (b) for each element of said beam phase space, calculating a target geometric involvement factor and an anatomical object geometric involvement factor related to the geometric interception of said radiation beam on said target volume and said anatomical object respectively;
• (c) determining a target acceptance criteria for said target geometric involvement factor and an anatomical object acceptance criteria for said anatomical object which relates to the acceptability of said radiation dose on said target volume and said anatomical objects;
• (d) computer searching by said computer means on said beam phase space so as to automically determine an acceptable sub-portion of said beam phase space which satisifies said target acceptance criteria and said anatomical object acceptance criteria simultaneously so as to thereby enable automatic optimization of said radiation dose on said target volume within the constraint of said target acceptance criteria and said anatomical object acceptance criteria.