Radiation treatment planning and delivery for moving targets in the heart

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11712581-B2
Application number	US-202117645887-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 23, 2021
Priority date	Mar 16, 2007
Publication date	Aug 1, 2023
Grant date	Aug 1, 2023

Abstract

Methods and systems are disclosed for radiating a moving object. The method may comprise acquiring a plurality of indicators of the phase of a physiological cycle of a patient and a plurality of images of the patient that include a target. Each image may be taken at a different phase of the physiological cycle and may be registered to the phase at which the image was taken. The method may also include identifying the target in each of the plurality of images, calculating a dose of radiation required to treat the target, calculating the number, orientation, and dwell time of one or more radiation beams required to deliver the calculated required dose of radiation to the target, and calculating a position of each of the one or more radiation beams required to achieve the calculated orientation. Each position may be a function of the phase of the physiological cycle to which each of the plurality of images is registered.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of radiating of a moving object, comprising:
acquiring a baseline set of a plurality of indicators of a phase of a physiological cycle of a patient;
acquiring a calculated position of each of one or more radiation beams required to treat a target in the patient, wherein each of the positions is a function of the phase of the physiological cycle;
identifying a current phase of the physiological cycle of the patient;
registering the current phase of the physiological cycle of the patient to the baseline set of the plurality of indicators of the phase of a physiological cycle of the patient;
positioning each of the one or more radiation beams according to the registration; and
delivering a dose of radiation.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
acquiring a baseline set of a plurality of images of the patient that include the target, each image taken at a different phase of the physiological cycle and registered to the phase at which the image was taken;
acquiring a current image of the patient that includes the target, wherein the current image of the patient is taken at the current phase of the physiological cycle;
registering the current image of the patient to an image in the baseline set of a plurality of images of the patient that occurred at the same phase of the physiological cycle as the current phase of the physiological cycle;
updating the calculated position of each of one or more radiation beams required to treat a target in the patient based on the registration.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
calculating a dose of radiation already delivered to the tissues of the patient based on the registration.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:
comparing the calculated dose of radiation already delivered to a dose of radiation required to treat the target.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein the current image is acquired via CT scan, MRI, PET scan, X-Ray, or ultrasound.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the physiological cycle is a heartbeat cycle or a respiratory cycle.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the heartbeat cycle is determined by EKG.

8. A radiation treatment planning system comprising at least one computing device, the at least one computing device configured to:
acquire a baseline set of a plurality of indicators of a phase of a physiological cycle of a patient;
acquire a calculated position of each of one or more radiation beams required to treat a target in the patient, wherein each of the positions is a function of the phase of the physiological cycle;
identify a current phase of the physiological cycle of the patient;
register the current phase of the physiological cycle of the patient to the baseline set of the plurality of indicators of the phase of a physiological cycle of the patient; and
position each of the one or more radiation beams according to the registration.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the at least one computing device is further configured to:
acquire a baseline set of a plurality of images of the patient that include the target, each image taken at a different phase of the physiological cycle and registered to the phase at which the image was taken;
acquire a current image of the patient that includes the target, wherein the current image of the patient is taken at the current phase of the physiological cycle;
register the current image of the patient to an image in the baseline set of a plurality of images of the patient that occurred at the same phase of the physiological cycle as the current phase of the physiological cycle;
update the calculated position of each of one or more radiation beams required to treat a target in the patient based on the registration.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the at least one computing device is further configured to:
calculate a dose of radiation already delivered to the tissues of the patient based on the registration.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the at least one computing device is further configured to:
compare the calculated dose of radiation already delivered to a dose of radiation required to treat the target.

12. The system of claim 9 , wherein the current image is acquired via CT scan, MRI, PET scan, X-Ray, or ultrasound.

13. The system of claim 8 , wherein the physiological cycle is a heartbeat cycle or a respiratory cycle.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the heartbeat cycle is determined by EKG.

Assignees

• Varian Med Sys Inc

Inventors

• Sumanaweera Thilaka
• Maguire Patrick
• Gardner Edward

Classifications

• A61N5/1037 Primary

  taking into account the movement of the target, e.g. 4D-image based planning · CPC title

• A61N5/1031

  using a specific method of dose optimization · CPC title

• A61B5/318

  Heart-related electrical modalities, e.g. electrocardiography [ECG] · CPC title

• A61B6/032

  Transmission computed tomography [CT] · CPC title

• A61B6/503

  for diagnosis of the heart · CPC title