Ebeam tomosynthesis for radiation therapy tumor tracking

A system for tracking tumors during radiotherapy by delivering treatment pulses along with imaging pulses, the system comprising:

• a radiotherapy device configured to provide the treatment pulses in at least one treatment beam;
• a multisource scanning eBeam X-ray tube having a plurality of focal spots, the X-ray tube being configured to emit the imaging pulses including X-rays from a plurality of different stationary, discrete locations on a target by sequentially emitting the X-rays from the plurality of focal spots of the X-ray tube;
• an imager panel configured to act as a detector and configured to receive the X-rays from the focal spots of the X-ray tube;
• and
• a tomosynthesis reconstruction module configured to process a plurality of sequential outputs from the imager panel to construct a combined tomosynthesis image based on the plurality of sequential outputs,
• wherein the imaging pulses are delivered along with the treatment pulses provided by the radiotherapy device;
• wherein the multisource scanning eBeam X-ray tube is substantially next to the treatment beam and provides the plurality of focal spots that illuminate the imager panel so that images are reconstructable in substantially the same beams-eye-view as the treatment beam;
• and
• wherein the multisource scanning eBeam X-ray tube sequentially scans each of the plurality of stationary, discrete locations on the target for a specified period of time before moving to the next discrete location on the target, wherein the imaging pulses are cycled off between each discrete location, allowing the imager panel to be read out in a synchronous manner between each scan in the cycle.