System and method for radiation treatment planning

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12533528-B2
Application number	US-202318315974-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 11, 2023
Priority date	May 11, 2023
Publication date	Jan 27, 2026
Grant date	Jan 27, 2026

Abstract

A computer-implemented method for radiation treatment planning, the method comprising: receiving a reference dose value, wherein the reference dose value is a defined maximum radiation dose within a first region for radiation treatment in a patient; applying an optimization procedure to a treatment plan for radiation treatment of the patient, wherein the optimization procedure seeks to minimize a cost function which is representative of a dose excess value above the reference dose value; and responsive to determining that the dose excess value is below a threshold value: decreasing the reference dose value; and reapplying the optimization procedure to the treatment plan, wherein the optimization procedure seeks to minimize the cost function based on the decreased reference dose value.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A computer-implemented method for radiation treatment planning, the method comprising:
receiving a reference dose value, wherein the reference dose value is a defined maximum radiation dose within a first region for radiation treatment in a patient; applying an optimization procedure to a treatment plan for radiation treatment of the patient, wherein the optimization procedure reduces a cost function which is representative of a dose excess value above the reference dose value; and responsive to determining that the dose excess value is below a threshold value:
decreasing the reference dose value;
reapplying the optimization procedure to the treatment plan, wherein the optimization procedure further reduces the cost function based on the decreased reference dose value; and
iterating the steps of decreasing the reference dose value and reapplying the optimization procedure until a stopping criterion is reached, wherein the stopping criterion comprises the optimization procedure failing to reduce the cost function such that the dose excess value is below the threshold value after a defined number of optimization iterations or a defined amount of time.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
responsive to a determination that the stopping criterion has been reached, outputting a set of optimized parameters for the treatment plan.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the set of optimized parameters define a fluence map for the treatment plan.

4 . The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
determining a configuration of a radiotherapy system for the treatment plan based on the set of optimized parameters.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the optimization procedure iteratively adapts the treatment plan to minimize the cost function.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the reference dose value is decreased by a fixed value.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the fixed value is between 0.3 and 0.7 Gy.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the reference dose value is decreased by an amount based on one or more of: the reference dose value, the threshold value, and a difference between the reference dose value and the threshold value.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the dose excess value comprises a root mean square dose excess value.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the cost function is a quadratic overdose cost function.

11 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the cost function is proportional to:

∑

i
∈
V

⁢

❘
"\[LeftBracketingBar]"

V
i

❘
"\[RightBracketingBar]"

[

D
i

-
Δ

]

+
2

representing a summation over i voxels in a volume V of the first region, wherein V i is a volume of the ith voxel, D i is a dose delivered to the ith voxel, Δ is the reference dose value, and the operator [D i −Δ] + represents the maximum of [D i −Δ] and zero.

12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises:
prior to applying the optimization procedure, receiving a maximum dose excess value, wherein the threshold value is equal to or less than the maximum dose excess value.

13 . The method of claim 12 , wherein a reference objective for the optimization procedure comprises the reference dose value and the maximum dose excess value.

14 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the optimization procedure further reduces the cost function subject to one or more constraints.

15 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the optimization procedure further reduces the cost function with respect to one or more optimizable parameters.

16 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the one or more optimizable parameters comprise one or more of: the dose excess value, one or more beamlets weights, one or more beam angles, a dose-histogram-volume information, a number of radiation beams, and a dose per beam.

17 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first region comprises a target region for the radiation treatment and/or an organ at risk, OAR.

18 . A data processing apparatus comprising:
a memory storing computer-executable instructions; and a processor configured to execute the instructions to:
receive a reference dose value, wherein the reference dose value is a defined maximum radiation dose within a first region for radiation treatment in a patient;
apply an optimization procedure to a treatment plan for radiation treatment of the patient, wherein the optimization procedure reduces a cost function which is representative of a dose excess value above the reference dose value; and
responsive to determining that the dose excess value is below a threshold value:
decrease the reference dose value;
reapply the optimization procedure to the treatment plan, wherein the optimization procedure further reduces the cost function based on the decreased reference dose value; and
iterate the steps of decreasing the reference dose value and reapplying the optimization procedure until a stopping criterion is reached, wherein the stopping criterion comprises the optimization procedure failing to reduce the cost function such that the dose excess value is below the threshold value after a defined number of optimization iterations or a defined amount of time.

19 . A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:
receive a reference dose value, wherein the reference dose value is a defined maximum radiation dose within a first region for radiation treatment in a patient; apply an optimization procedure to a treatment plan for radiation treatment of the patient, wherein the optimization procedure reduces a cost function which is representative of a dose excess value above the reference dose value; and responsive to determining that the dose excess value is below a threshold value:
decrease the reference dose value;
reapply the optimization procedure to the treatment plan, wherein the optimization procedure further reduces the cost function based on the decreased reference dose value; and
iterating the steps of decreasing the reference dose value and reapplying the optimization procedure until a stopping criterion is reached, wherein the stopping criterion comprises the optimization procedure failing to reduce the cost function such that the dose excess value is below the threshold value after a defined number of optimization iterations or a defined amount of time.

20 . A computer-implemented method for radiation treatment planning, the method comprising:
receiving a reference dose value, wherein the reference dose value is a defined maximum radiation dose withi

Assignees

• Elekta Inc

Inventors

• Voet Peter
• Men Chunhua
• Larson Randy
• Marshall Spencer

Classifications

• A61N5/1031 Primary

  using a specific method of dose optimization · CPC title