Treatment planning

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2021274635-A1
Application number	US-202117174986-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Feb 12, 2021
Priority date	Jul 8, 2016
Publication date	Sep 2, 2021
Grant date	—

Abstract

An example method includes: receiving, from a treatment planning process, information that is based on a dose distribution for an irradiation target; and performing at least one of the following operations: moving structures to trim spots of a particle beam so that the spots of the particle beam approximate pre-trimmed spots for which characteristics are obtained based on the information received; moving structures to produce a trimming curve for a layer of an irradiation target based on a specification of a trimming curve for the layer included in the information received; moving structures to produce a single trimming curve for all radiation fields of an irradiation target based on specifications of the single trimming curve included in the information received; or moving structures based on configuration information for the structures in the information received.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 - 19 . (canceled)

20 . A method comprising:
receiving, from a treatment planning process, information that is based on a dose distribution for an irradiation target; and performing operations comprising:
moving structures to trim spots of a particle beam so that the spots of the particle beam approximate pre-trimmed spots for which characteristics are obtained based on the information received.

21 . The method of claim 20 , wherein the structures are part of a configurable collimator and comprise leaves that are movable into, or out of, an area to be treated by the particle beam.

22 - 40 . (canceled)

41 . A particle therapy system comprising:
a particle accelerator to output a particle beam for application to an irradiation target; and a control system comprising one or more processing devices configured to perform operations comprising:
receiving, from a treatment planning process, information that is based on a dose distribution for the irradiation target; and
performing operations comprising:
moving structures to trim spots of the particle beam so that the spots of the particle beam approximate pre-trimmed spots for which characteristics are obtained based on the information received.

42 . The particle therapy system of claim 41 , wherein the particle therapy system further comprises a configurable collimator, the structures being part of the configurable collimator and comprising leaves that are movable into, or out of, an area to be treated by the particle beam.

43 - 46 . (canceled)

47 . One or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media storing instructions that are executable to perform operations comprising:
obtaining a target dose distribution for a treatment area; identifying one or more pre-trimmed spots from among a library of pre-trimmed spots that best approximates one or more points of the target dose distribution; and outputting information identifying the one or more pre-trimmed spots.

48 . The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 47 , wherein the operations comprise:
obtaining a set of coarse spots that approximates the target dose distribution; changing an intensity of one or more spots in the coarse set based on a maximum acceptable dosage for a portion of the treatment area; identifying a spot among the coarse spots that is within a transition region of the treatment area; and substituting the one or more pre-trimmed spots for the spot within the transition region.

49 . The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 48 , wherein the operations comprise:
obtaining a minimum acceptable dosage for a portion of the treatment area; wherein the set of coarse spots is selected based on the minimum acceptable dosage.

50 . The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 47 , wherein the information is usable to configure a configurable collimator to achieve a dose distribution during treatment that approximates the target dose distribution.

51 - 54 . (canceled)

55 . The particle therapy system of claim 41 , wherein the information identifies characteristics of the pre-trimmed spots, the characteristics being stored in a library in computer memory.

56 . The particle therapy system of claim 41 , wherein the information indicates where the pre-trimmed spots are to be formed on the irradiation target; and
wherein the structures are part of a configurable collimator.

57 . The particle therapy system of claim 41 , wherein the information identifies characteristics of the pre-trimmed spots; and
wherein the structures are movable on a spot-by-spot basis.

58 . The particle therapy system of claim 57 , wherein at least two successive spots have at least one of a different size or a different shape.

59 . The particle therapy system of claim 41 , wherein the information comprises specifications of a trimming curve for a radiation field associated with the irradiation target.

60 . The particle therapy system of claim 41 , further comprising:
a configurable collimator comprising the structures, the configurable collimator comprising a primary carriage coupled to the structures to move the structures relative to the irradiation target in a first dimension relative to the irradiation target; and wherein the control system is configured to move the primary carriage to trim the spots.

61 . The particle therapy system of claim 60 , wherein the configurable collimator comprises secondary carriages coupled to the primary carriage and to the structures to move the structures in a second dimension relative to the irradiation target; and
wherein the control system is configured to move at least one of the secondary carriages to trim the spots.

62 . The particle therapy system of claim 61 , wherein the second dimension comprises movement into, and out of, a treatment area.

63 . The particle therapy system of claim 61 , wherein moving at least one of the secondary carriages comprises rotating the at least one secondary carriage.

64 . The particle therapy system of claim 60 , wherein the structures comprise leaves that are extendible and retractable relative to the particle beam.

65 . The particle therapy system of claim 60 , wherein the control system is configured to rotate all or part of the configurable collimator.

66 . The method of claim 20 , wherein at least two successive spots have at least one of a different size or a different shape.

Assignees

• Mevion Medical Systems Inc

Inventors

• Cooley James
• Zwart Gerrit Townsend
• Rosenthal Stanley J
• Jones Mark R
• Bouchet Lionel G
• Cessac Robert
• Jachinowski Joseph

Classifications

• A61B5/0036 Primary

  including treatment, e.g., using an implantable medical device, ablating, ventilating · CPC title

• H05H2007/043

  for beam focusing · CPC title

• A61N5/1037

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

• A61N5/1036

  Leaf sequencing algorithms · CPC title

• H05H13/02 Primary

  Synchrocyclotrons, i.e. frequency modulated cyclotrons · CPC title