Method and apparatus to facilitate treating a target portion of a patient's body with radiation

A method to facilitate treating a target portion of a patient's body with radiation, the method comprising:

• at a control circuit:
• accessing information regarding functionality of portions of the patient's body by, at least in part, developing the information using functionality estimates based upon accumulated radiation doses;
• using the information to optimize a radiation-treatment plan to treat the target portion of the patient's body while minimizing at least some collateral radiation-based damage to non-targeted functional portions of the patient's body.

An apparatus to facilitate treating a target portion of a patient's body with radiation, the apparatus comprising:

• a memory having information stored therein regarding functionality of portions of the patient's body;
• a control circuit operably coupled to the memory and being configured to optimize a radiation-treatment plan to treat the target portion of the patient's body while minimizing at least some collateral radiation-based damage to non-targeted functional portions of the patient's body, at least in part, by referring at least some of the collateral radiation-based damage to non-targeted less-functional portions of the patient's body.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer instructions stored therein, which computer instructions when executed by a digital computing platform provide for:

• accessing information regarding functionality of a patient's body having a target portion that is to be treated with radiation;
• optimizing a radiation-treatment plan to treat the target portion of the patient's body while minimizing at least some collateral radiation-based damage to non-targeted functional portions of the patient's body by referring the collateral radiation-based damage to non-targeted less-functional portions of the patient's body.