Methods and apparatus for facilitating optimization and administration of energy therapy treatment plans

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to methods and devices for facilitating optimization and administration of energy therapy treatment plans. The control circuit presents linear energy transfer information corresponding to an optimized energy therapy treatment plan, such as a proton therapy treatment plan, via a user interface. When certain user inputs are detected, the control circuitry may respond by accessing the pre-computed impact matrix to provide corresponding accessed information and then present modified linear energy transfer information via the user interface based at least in part on the accessed information.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] These teachings generally relate to treating a planned target volume of a patient with energy according to an energy-based treatment plan, and more particularly to optimizing the energy-based treatment plan. Background Art

[0002] The use of energy to treat medical conditions comprises a known area of ​​prior art endeavor. For example, proton therapy comprises an important component of many treatment plans for reducing or eliminating unwanted tumors. Proton radiation therapy employs protons, which are positively charged subatomic particles in the nucleus of an atom, rather than the more commonly used X-rays or photons in conventional radiation therapy. Proton therapy facilitates precise targeting and delivery of energy to tumors while generally minimizing damage to surrounding healthy tissue.

[0003] Imaging techniques, such as computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging, can be used to accurately map the location, size, and shape of the tumor. Using this information, a treatment plan can be developed that determines the best angle and energy for delivering the proton beam.

[0004] Linear energy transfer describes the energy deposited per unit distance by an ionizing particle. This roughly corresponds to the frequency of interactions along the particle trajectory. For protons, linear energy transfer tends to be concentrated at a point commonly referred to as the Bragg peak. Higher linear energy transfer is generally associated with more killed or damaged cells. The dose may be low in a specific area, but the linear energy transfer may still be high. This means that, for example, an organ at risk may appear to be receiving a low dose while the organ is also receiving a relatively high linear energy transfer, which may result in unexpected damage to the organ at risk.

[0005] Applicants have determined that it would be useful to provide treatment planners with information about linear energy transfer, thereby allowing this information to be better considered when optimizing dose. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0006] The above needs are met, at least in part, by providing methods and apparatus for facilitating optimization and administration of energy therapy treatment plans, which are described in the following detailed description, particularly when studied in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

[0007] Figure 1 Includes block diagrams configured according to various embodiments of these teachings;

[0008] Figure 2 Includes flow charts configured according to various embodiments of these teachings;

[0009] Figure 3 includes screen shots configured according to various embodiments of these teachings; and

[0010] Figure 4 Included are screen shots configured according to various embodiments of these teachings.

[0011] The elements in the drawings are illustrated for simplicity and clarity, and are not necessarily drawn to scale. For example, the size and / or relative positioning of certain elements in the drawings may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help improve the understanding of the various embodiments of this teaching. In addition, common but well-known elements that are useful or necessary in commercially feasible embodiments are usually not depicted, so as to facilitate the less obstructed views of the various embodiments of this teaching. Certain actions and / or steps can be described or depicted in a specific order of occurrence, and those skilled in the art will understand that this particularity about the order is not actually necessary. Unless different specific meanings are set forth in this article, the terms and expressions used herein have the common technical meanings consistent with these terms and expressions of those skilled in the art as set forth above. Unless otherwise clearly indicated, the word "or" used herein should be interpreted as having a separable structure rather than a connective structure. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0012] In general, pursuant to these various embodiments, control circuitry presents, via a user interface, linear energy transfer information corresponding to an optimized energy therapy treatment plan, such as a proton therapy treatment plan. Upon detecting certain user input, the control circuitry may respond by accessing a precomputed influence matrix to provide corresponding accessed information, and then presenting, via the user interface, modified linear energy transfer information based, at least in part, on the accessed information.

[0013] These teachings will include various methods for detecting the aforementioned user input. For example, the user input may include movement of a displayed cursor and / or a user-based drawing of a displayed patient portion (such as a tumor or risk organ). As another example, these teachings will include detecting a user-based modification of a spot.

[0014] For example, the aforementioned pre-computed influence matrix may include pre-computed linear energy transfer contributions (for each voxel on a voxel-by-voxel basis if desired). By one approach, the aforementioned may include a linear energy contribution for each spot for each voxel.

[0015] So configured, these teachings provide a practical and flexible method for visualizing and extracting some linear energy transfer information and taking such information into account when optimizing the dose to be administered, even though linear energy transfer calculations are typically viewed as a rather non-interactive and indirect process for many users.

[0016] These and other advantages may become more apparent upon a thorough examination and study of the following detailed description. Referring now to the drawings, and in particular to the Figure 1 , an illustrative device 100 that is compatible with many of these teachings will first be presented.

[0017] In this particular example, enabling device 100 includes control circuit 101. As a "circuit," control circuit 101 thus includes a structure that includes at least one (and typically many) conductive paths (such as paths composed of a conductive metal such as copper or silver) that transmit power in an orderly manner, which path(s) will typically also include corresponding electrical components (including passive elements (such as resistors and capacitors) and active elements (such as any of a wide variety of semiconductor-based devices), as appropriate) to permit the circuit to implement the control aspects of these teachings.

[0018] Such control circuit 101 may include a fixed-purpose hardwired hardware platform (including but not limited to an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) (which is an integrated circuit customized for a specific purpose rather than for general purpose), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), etc.), or may include a partially or fully programmable hardware platform (including but not limited to a microcontroller, a microprocessor, etc.). These architectural options for such a structure are well known and understood in the art and therefore do not need to be further described herein. The control circuit 101 is configured to perform one or more steps, actions, and / or functions described herein (e.g., by using corresponding programming that will be fully understood by those skilled in the art).

[0019] The control circuit 101 is operably coupled to a memory 102. The memory 102 may be integrated into the control circuit 101, or may be physically separate (in whole or in part) from the control circuit 101 as desired. The memory 102 may also be local to the control circuit 101 (e.g., the two share a common circuit board, chassis, power supply, and / or housing), or may be remote in part or in whole to the control circuit 101 (e.g., the memory 102 is physically located in another facility, metropolitan area, or even country than the control circuit 101).

[0020] In addition to the information described herein (such as optimization information for a particular patient and information about a particular energy treatment platform), the memory 102 may also be used, for example, to non-transitory store computer instructions that, when executed by the control circuit 101, cause the control circuit 101 to behave as described herein. (As used herein, references to "non-transitory" should be understood to refer to the non-transitory state of the stored content (and thus exclude the situation where the stored content merely constitutes a signal or wave) rather than the volatility of the storage medium itself, and thus include non-volatile memory (such as read-only memory (ROM)) as well as volatile memory (such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM)).

[0021] By an optional approach, the control circuit 101 is also operatively coupled to a user interface 103. The user interface 103 may include any of a variety of user input mechanisms (such as, but not limited to, keyboards and keypads, cursor control devices, touch-sensitive displays, voice recognition interfaces, gesture recognition interfaces, etc.) and / or user output mechanisms (such as, but not limited to, visual displays, audio sensors, printers, etc.) to facilitate receiving information and / or instructions from a user and / or providing information to a user.

[0022] If desired, the control circuit 101 may also be operatively coupled to a network interface (not shown). So configured, the control circuit 101 may communicate with other components (inside and outside the device 100) via the network interface. Network interfaces (including both wireless and non-wireless platforms) are well known in the art and need not be specifically described here.

[0023] By one approach, a computed tomography device 106 and / or other imaging device 107 known in the art may acquire some or all of any desired patient-related imaging information.

[0024] In this illustrative example, the control circuit 101 is configured to ultimately output an optimized energy-based treatment plan, such as, for example, the optimized energy treatment plan 113. The energy-based treatment plan generally includes values ​​specified for each of a variety of treatment platform parameters during each of a plurality of consecutive exposure fields. In this case, the energy-based treatment plan is generated by an optimization process, examples of which are further provided herein.

[0025] By one approach, the control circuit 101 may be operably coupled to an energy-based treatment platform 114 configured to deliver therapeutic energy 112 to a region having at least one treatment volume 105 and one or more organs at risk (at least one region) according to an optimized energy-based treatment plan 113. Figure 1104) of a corresponding patient 104 (represented by the first to Nth risk organs 108 and 109 in FIG. 104). These teachings are generally applicable to any of a variety of energy-based treatment platforms / devices. For ease of description, but not intended to imply any limitation in these aspects, the energy-based treatment platform 114 includes an energy source (such as an energy source 115 of accelerated protons 116).

[0026] By one approach, the energy source 115 can be selectively moved along an arcuate path via a gantry (wherein the path at least to some extent contains the patient itself during the administration of treatment). The arcuate path can include a complete or nearly complete circle as desired. By one approach, the control circuit 101 controls the movement of the energy source 115 along the arcuate path and can accordingly control when the energy source 115 starts moving, stops moving, accelerates, decelerates, and / or the speed at which the energy source 115 travels along the arcuate path. As an illustrative example, the energy source 115 can include a particle accelerator (such as a cyclotron or a synchrotron).

[0027] A typical energy-based treatment platform 114 may also include one or more support devices 110 (such as a treatment table) for supporting the patient 104 during the treatment period, one or more patient fixation devices 111, and one or more energy shaping devices (e.g., beam shaping devices 117 (such as jaws, multi-leaf collimators, etc.)) for providing selective energy shaping and / or energy modulation as needed.

[0028] In a typical application setting, it is assumed herein that the patient support device 110 can be selectively controlled by the control circuit 101 to move in any direction (i.e., any X, Y, or Z direction) during an energy-based treatment period. Since the aforementioned elements and systems are well known in the art, further elaboration of these aspects is not provided herein unless relevant to the description.

[0029] Reference now Figure 2 , a process 200 will be described that can be implemented, for example, in conjunction with the above-described application arrangement (and more specifically via the aforementioned control circuit 101). Generally speaking, the process 200 is used to facilitate generating an optimized energy treatment plan 113, thereby facilitating treating a specific patient with therapeutic energy using a specific energy treatment platform according to the optimized energy treatment plan.

[0030] At box 201, the process 200 presents (e.g., via the aforementioned user interface 103) linear energy transfer information 202 corresponding to an optimized energy therapy treatment plan. For illustrative purposes, this description will assume that the energy therapy treatment plan is a proton therapy treatment plan. However, it should be understood that these teachings will encompass other methods.

[0031] These teachings will encompass a variety of ways to present linear energy transfer information 202. For example, such information may be provided using alphanumeric content and / or graphical content (where different levels are illustrated, for example, via color or grayscale selections and / or gradients).

[0032] These teachings then provide for detecting (at decision block 203) user input (again, e.g., via the aforementioned user interface 103) relative to the presented linear energy transfer information 202 to provide a corresponding detected user input. (In the event that no relevant triggering event is detected, the process 200 may encompass any of a variety of responses. Examples of responses may include zero-time multitasking (whereby the control circuit 101 performs other tasks before returning to monitor for triggering events again) and continuous looping back to monitor for triggering events substantially continuously. These teachings will also encompass supporting this detection activity via real-time interrupt capabilities.)

[0033] For example, the detected user input may include user-based cursor movement. For example, such cursor movement may correspond to a user-based drawing of a displayed portion of the patient (such as all or part of a treatment target and / or one or more organs at risk). For example, the drawing may be used to select a drawn area / volume for subsequent consideration / treatment in accordance with these teachings.

[0034] Figure 3 and Figure 4 Simple illustrative examples of these aspects are presented. Figure 3 In FIG. 1 , the user interface 103 presents a target volume 301 and an organ at risk 302. The user has moved the screen cursor 303 to a position where the entire target volume 301 is selected / painted by double-clicking the mouse button, as shown in FIG. Figure 4 as shown in .

[0035] As another example, instead of or in combination with the above, the detected cursor movement can correspond to a modification of one or more spots, thereby resulting in at least one detected spot-based modification. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that in proton radiation therapy, a "spot" refers to a specific location within a tumor (or other volume of interest) that is targeted with a precise proton radiation beam.

[0036] In response to detecting the aforementioned user input, at block 204, the process 200 accesses a pre-computed influence matrix 205 to provide corresponding result access information. By one approach, the aforementioned pre-computed influence matrix 205 at least partially includes pre-computed linear energy transfer information (it should be clear that it is not necessarily the same as the aforementioned linear energy transfer information 202).

[0037] By one approach, the pre-calculated influence matrix 205 includes pre-calculated linear energy transfer contributions. As used herein, reference to "pre-calculation" should be understood as a calculation performed and completed before the time required. By one approach, this can mean the time before initiating the process 200.

[0038] As an illustrative example of these aspects, the contributions may include a pre-computed linear energy transfer contribution for a particular voxel, or a pre-computed linear energy transfer contribution for each of a plurality of voxels (such as each voxel corresponding to the user selection described above). By one approach, and in the latter aspect, the pre-computed influence matrix 205 may include a pre-computed linear energy transfer contribution for each spot for each voxel. (In three-dimensional computer graphics, a voxel represents a value on a regular grid in three-dimensional space. In radiation therapy planning, medical imaging data (such as that obtained by computed tomography) may be used to create a detailed three-dimensional model of a patient's anatomy. Each voxel in such a model may also hold information about, among other things, the density and composition of the underlying tissue at that specific location.)

[0039] By one approach, the contents of the precomputed influence matrix 205 may be calculated by storing the linear energy transfer of each spot to each voxel. This approach allows for quick access to these stored contributions when needed, without requiring recalculation of this information each time a change is made to the development plan.

[0040] At block 206, the control circuit 101 may then present modified linear energy transfer information based at least in part on the aforementioned accessed information via the user interface 103. So configured, a user may, for example, view the linear energy transfer contributions accessed from the pre-computed influence matrix 205. For example, the aforementioned content may include letting the user select (e.g., by drawing) a greater (or lesser) level of linear energy transfer (or dose) for a particular patient region, and then automatically reacting by quickly presenting content such as the resulting spot weight, linear energy transfer, etc. As another example, these teachings will encompass letting the user edit the spot weight and dose, and then automatically updating and presenting the resulting linear energy transfer results.

[0041] Because the information presented is pre-computed, this entire process can be accomplished substantially in real time (because to the user, the aforementioned activities can appear to occur instantaneously). Thus, these teachings will encompass allowing a user to repeat execution of blocks 201 through 206 any number of times (e.g., testing various linear energy transfer levels with various portions of a patient's anatomy) without incurring any undue time consequences, thereby allowing the user to freely explore options while making useful, thoughtful observations of the potential consequences and / or outcomes of interest to those options.

[0042] At optional block 207, these teachings will include performing optimization of the energy therapy treatment plan to provide an optimized energy therapy treatment plan 113. At block 208, these teachings will then include administering therapeutic energy to the corresponding patient 104 according to the optimized energy therapy treatment plan 113, for example using a corresponding energy therapy platform 114.

[0043] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications, changes, and combinations may be made to the above-described embodiments without departing from the scope of the present invention, and these modifications, changes, and combinations should be considered to be within the scope of the inventive concept.

Claims

1. A method comprising: Through the control circuit: presenting, via a user interface, linear energy transfer information corresponding to an optimized energy therapy treatment plan; detecting user input via the user interface to provide detected user input; responsive to said detected user input, accessing a precomputed influence matrix to provide accessed information; Modified linear energy transfer information is presented via the user interface based at least in part on the accessed information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the energy therapy treatment plan comprises a proton therapy treatment plan. 3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein detecting the user input via the user interface comprises, at least in part, detecting cursor movement. 4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein detecting the user input via the user interface comprises, at least in part, detecting a user-based drawing of a displayed patient portion. 5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein detecting the user input via the user interface comprises, at least in part, detecting at least one blob-based modification. The method of claim 1 , wherein the pre-computed influence matrix comprises pre-computed linear energy transfer contributions. The method of claim 6 , wherein the pre-computed linear energy transfer contribution comprises a pre-computed linear energy transfer contribution for each voxel. 8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the pre-computed linear energy transfer contribution for each voxel comprises a linear energy transfer contribution for each spot of each voxel.

9. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: Optimization of the energy therapy treatment plan is performed to provide an optimized energy therapy treatment plan.

10. The method according to claim 9, further comprising: Therapeutic energy is administered to the patient according to the optimized energy therapy treatment plan.

11. An apparatus comprising: a memory having a precomputed influence matrix stored therein; User interface; a control circuit operatively coupled to the memory and the user interface and configured to: presenting, via the user interface, linear energy transfer information corresponding to an optimized energy therapy treatment plan; detecting user input via the user interface to provide detected user input; responsive to said detected user input, accessing said precomputed influence matrix to provide accessed information; Modified linear energy transfer information is presented via the user interface based at least in part on the accessed information.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the energy therapy treatment plan comprises a proton therapy treatment plan.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the control circuit is configured to detect the user input via the user interface at least in part by detecting cursor movement.

14. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the control circuit is configured to detect the user input via the user interface at least in part by detecting a user-based drawing of the displayed patient portion.

15. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the control circuit is configured to detect the user input via the user interface at least in part by detecting at least one speckle-based modification.

16. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the pre-computed influence matrix comprises pre-computed linear energy transfer contributions.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the pre-computed linear energy transfer contribution comprises a pre-computed linear energy transfer contribution for each voxel.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the pre-computed linear energy transfer contribution for each voxel comprises a linear energy transfer contribution for each spot of each voxel.

19. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the control circuit is further configured to: Optimization of the energy therapy treatment plan is performed to provide an optimized energy therapy treatment plan.

20. The apparatus according to claim 9, further comprising: A radiation therapy platform is configured to administer therapeutic energy to a patient according to the optimized energy therapy treatment plan.

Images