Methods and apparatus for imaging in conjunction with radiotherapy
AssigneeDalhousie University
InventorsJames Leonard Robar, Alexander Owen MacDonald
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Methods and apparatus for planning imaging include planning imaging in conjunction with planning a radiation treatment. A radiation dose due to planned imaging may be calculated and used in optimizing a plan for delivering therapeutic radiation. Imaging and treatment may be performed using radiation beams having different characteristics. In some embodiments an imaging beam is generated using a low-Z target and a therapy beam is generated using a high-Z target. A radiation treatment planning system may include data characterizing both the imaging beam and the treatment beam.
Claims36
A method for planning a radiation treatment for delivery by a radiotherapy apparatus, the method comprising:
- defining at least one set of imaging conditions for imaging with an imaging beam, each set of imaging conditions comprising at least a beam angle and a beam shape for exposing at least one imaging volume of interest to radiation;
- establishing a plan for a therapeutic radiation treatment to be delivered by a treatment beam different from the imaging beam, the plan comprising apertures for a plurality of beam angles;
- estimating a volumetric radiation dose that would result from the at least one set of imaging conditions using first data characterizing the imaging beam;
- estimating a volumetric radiation dose that would result from delivering the plan for a therapeutic radiation treatment using second data characterizing the treatment beam;
- optimizing the apertures to deliver a desired radiation dose to a target region of a subject while maintaining radiation dose to tissues outside of the target region below one or more thresholds while taking into account the estimated volumetric radiation dose for the at least one set of imaging conditions at least in a selected region outside of the target region.
A method for planning a radiation treatment, the method comprising:
- planning exposures of a subject to radiation for imaging;
- computing a three-dimensional imaging dose distribution that would result from delivering the imaging exposures;
- planning exposures of the subject to radiation to yield a desired therapeutic radiation dose to a treatment region while using the imaging dose distribution as a baseline dose distribution.
Apparatus for planning radiation treatments, the apparatus comprising one or more data processors, a program memory accessible to the one or more data processors, the program memory comprising software instructions executable by the one or more processors to configure the one or more processors to:
- plan exposures of a subject to radiation for imaging;
- compute a three-dimensional imaging dose distribution that would result from delivering the imaging exposures;
- and
- plan exposures of the subject to radiation to yield a desired therapeutic radiation dose to a treatment region while using the imaging dose distribution as a baseline dose distribution.
An imaging method comprising:
- delivering a radiation treatment to a treatment volume of a subject according to a radiation treatment plan from a plurality of beam angles within a range of angles while shaping the beam to correspond to the treatment volume using a beam shaper;
- for each of a plurality of different beam angles within the range of angles:
- controlling the beam shaper to shape a radiation beam such that delivery of radiation is primarily limited to paths that pass through a plurality of imaging volumes of interest within a subject, the imaging volumes different from the treatment volume;
- obtaining images of radiation that has passed through the imaging volumes of interest;
- and,
- processing the images to obtain volumetric images of the plurality of imaging volumes of interest.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.