Breathing-Synchronized Radiation Therapy for Moving Tumors
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current radiation therapy methods for treating moving tumors due to breathing-induced motion are inefficient, often resulting in increased collateral damage to normal tissues and are limited by the need for robotic linac translation, strict breathing sequences, and inadequate handling of breathing amplitude variations.
Innovation Solution
A method and system for breathing-synchronized tumor tracking, which uses real-time data on patient breathing frequency and amplitude, along with tumor location and shape, to optimize radiation delivery parameters, allowing the radiation beam to adapt dynamically to the patient's unique breathing pattern, independent of treatment machine monitor units.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If the radiation beam is made wide enough to cover all possible regions to which the target can move (adding treatment margin), then the geometric accuracy is improved, but the amount of normal tissues included in the treatment volume increases, leading to increased collateral damage and toxicity
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies dynamics by making the radiation beam aperture dynamic rather than static. The aperture shape and location are continuously adjusted in real-time to track the moving target, allowing the beam to adapt its geometry to the target's position at each moment, thereby maintaining precision without requiring excessive margins that would harm normal tissues
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback by continuously monitoring the target's position and using this information to adjust the radiation beam parameters. The real-time feedback loop ensures the beam remains accurately positioned on the moving target, enabling precise delivery without the need to expand the beam width to cover all possible target positions, thus reducing collateral damage
2Manufacturing precision
If the patient holds breath during radiation delivery, then the target motion error is reduced, but the treatment time increases significantly because radiation can only be delivered during breath-holding periods
Solution Approach 1:
The patent enables continuous radiation delivery by tracking the target's motion throughout the entire breathing cycle rather than limiting delivery to breath-holding periods. The radiation beam continuously follows the target's movement, ensuring that useful treatment action occurs throughout the breathing cycle without interruption, thereby maintaining precision while eliminating the time loss associated with breath-holding requirements
3Manufacturing precision
If the radiation beam aperture is reduced to focus on a discrete pre-selected region at a particular time window during breathing (gating), then the target motion error is reduced, but the treatment becomes time-consuming with low duty cycle
Solution Approach 1:
The system transitions from static gating to dynamic tracking by continuously adjusting the beam aperture to follow the target's motion throughout the breathing cycle. This dynamic approach eliminates the need to wait for specific time windows, allowing radiation delivery to occur continuously at high precision without the time-consuming delays inherent in gating methods
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements continuous radiation delivery by tracking the target throughout the entire breathing cycle, eliminating the interruptions and waiting periods associated with gating. The beam remains continuously focused on the moving target, maximizing treatment efficiency while maintaining high precision, thereby resolving the contradiction between accuracy and productivity
4Adaptability or versatility
If robotic arm is used to carry linac around patient to track target, then dynamic adjustment to breathing changes is achieved, but the device complexity increases and widespread use is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the complex robotic translation capability from the linac system and replaces it with a simpler approach using a stationary linac combined with real-time image guidance and dynamic aperture adjustment. This separation removes the need for complex robotic mechanics while maintaining the ability to dynamically track and treat moving targets
Solution Approach 2:
The system replaces the mechanical robotic arm with a control system that uses real-time imaging and computational algorithms to track the target and dynamically adjust the radiation beam parameters. This substitution eliminates complex mechanical components while achieving the same adaptive tracking function through software-based control and image-guided positioning
Data Source
AI summary
Preparing a plan to synchronize radiation delivery to a target in a patient with patient breathing phase and amplitude as the independent variable comprising (a) obtaining simultaneous data on patient breathing and target shape and location, (b) correlating the data and optimizing the correlation, (c) establishing optimal parameters of radiation delivery for each breathing phase/amplitude or for each target shape/location; and (d) synchronizing radiation delivery to a target in a patient with patient breathing comprising (a) positioning the patient, (b) monitoring actual breathing or the shape/location of the target, and (c) while monitoring, delivering radiation to the target according to a plan; and a system for controlling radiation delivery by a device to a target in a patient comprising (i) a processor, which receives and processes data on breathing or the shape/location of the target, and (ii) a controller, which controls radiation delivery to the target according to a plan, which synchronizes radiation delivery to the target with breathing data or the shape/location of the target.