Automatic creation and selection of dose prediction models for treatment plans

A computer product comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium storing a plurality of instructions that when executed control a computer system to determine a dose prediction model for generating a dose distribution of a radiation treatment plan for irradiating a target structure within a patient, the instructions comprising:

• for each of N radiation treatment plans corresponding to a plurality of former patients treated with a same type of radiation treatment:
• receiving information about the radiation treatment plan, including information about a patient for whom the treatment plan was designed and a respective dose distribution;
• analyzing the information to identify D characteristic values of the radiation treatment plan, each characteristic value corresponding to a different characteristic of the radiation treatment plan, the D characteristic values including at least one geometric characteristic value of a tumor of the patient;
• and
• assigning a coordinate to each of the D characteristic values to obtain a D-dimensional point corresponding to the radiation treatment plan, wherein each characteristic corresponds to a different dimension in a D-dimensional space;
• identifying a cluster of M radiation treatment plans based on the D-dimensional points, where M is less than N, and wherein at least two of the M radiation treatments plans in the cluster have a non-zero distance between the respective D-dimensional points;
• using the M radiation treatment plans of the cluster to determine a dose prediction model for generating one or more new radiation treatment plans, wherein when a new patient is assigned to the cluster from among a plurality of clusters of the N radiation treatment plans, the dose prediction model is configured to output a new dose distribution for the new patient using the dose distributions of the M radiation treatment plans in the cluster based on a new D-dimensional point corresponding to the new patient;
• generating the new radiation treatment plan based on the new dose distribution, the new radiation treatment plan including angles of a treatment head and sequence of movements of a multileaf collimator for achieving the new dose distribution;
• and
• initiating a signal that controls the treatment head and a radiation source to provide radiation at the angles using the sequence of movements of the multileaf collimator to specific portions of a treatment area of the new patient according to the new radiation treatment plan.

A radiation therapy system comprising:

• a radiation therapy device including:
• a rotatable gantry including a treatment head and a multileaf collimator, wherein the multileaf collimator is configured to shape a radiation beam emitted from the radiation head;
• and
• a control unit configured to:
• control the rotation of the rotatable gantry;
• control emission of the radiation beam from the treatment head;
• and
• control the shape of the radiation beam via the multileaf collimator;
• one or more processors;
• and
• a non-transitory computer readable medium storing a plurality of instructions that when executed control the one or more processors to determine a dose prediction model for generating a dose distribution of a radiation treatment plan for irradiating a target structure within a patient, the instructions comprising:
• for each of N radiation treatment plans corresponding to a plurality of former patients treated with a same type of radiation treatment:
• receiving information about the radiation treatment plan, including information about a patient for whom the treatment plan was designed and a respective dose distribution;
• analyzing the information to identify D characteristic values of the radiation treatment plan, each characteristic value corresponding to a different characteristic of the radiation treatment plan, the D characteristic values including at least one geometric characteristic value of a tumor of the patient;
• and
• assigning a coordinate to each of the D characteristic values to obtain a D-dimensional point corresponding to the radiation treatment plan, wherein each characteristic corresponds to a different dimension in a D-dimensional space;
• identifying a cluster of M radiation treatment plans based on the D-dimensional points, where M is less than N, and wherein at least two of the M radiation treatments plans in the cluster have a non-zero distance between the respective D-dimensional points;
• using the M radiation treatment plans of the cluster to determine a dose prediction model for generating a new radiation treatment plan, wherein when a new patient is assigned to the cluster from among a plurality of clusters of the N radiation treatment plans, the dose prediction model is configured to output a new dose distribution for the new patient using the dose distributions of the M radiation treatment plans in the cluster based on a new D-dimensional point corresponding to the new patient, the new patient being not one of the former patients;
• generating the new radiation treatment plan based on the new dose distribution, the new radiation treatment plan including angles of a treatment head and sequence of movements of a multileaf collimator for achieving the new dose distribution;
• and
• providing, by the treatment head of the radiation therapy device, radiation at angles and using the sequence of movements of the multileaf collimator to specific portions of a treatment area of the new patient according to the new radiation treatment plan.