Burst Mode Radiation Synchronization for Moving Targets
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional radiotherapy systems face inefficiencies and insufficiencies in treating moving targets due to challenges in accurately delivering radiation while minimizing exposure to surrounding healthy tissue, as existing methods often require additional devices or increased margins that can harm healthy tissues.
Innovation Solution
A burst mode treatment plan is implemented, synchronizing the delivery of radiation with periodic treatment opportunities identified by a gating device, using dynamic and static axes to precisely position and shape the radiation beam during the patient's breathing cycle, ensuring accurate targeting and reduced exposure to healthy tissues.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If an increased margin of delivery is used around the target to account for target excursions, then the target receives the desired radiation dose, but surrounding healthy tissue or organs are at an increased risk of receiving radiation
Solution Approach 1:
The system delivers radiation in periodic bursts synchronized with the patient's breathing cycle. The radiation beam is activated only during specific phases of the breathing cycle when the target is within the acceptable position range, and deactivated during other phases. This periodic on/off action allows the beam to track the moving target without continuously irradiating surrounding healthy tissues, thus resolving the contradiction between reliable target dose delivery and healthy tissue protection.
2Manufacturing precision
If gated treatment techniques are used to deliver radiation only when the patient is within a specific breathing phase, then radiation is delivered more accurately to the target, but additional devices are required for breathing monitoring and phase determination
Solution Approach 1:
The radiation delivery system is designed to perform multiple functions: it not only delivers the therapeutic radiation beam but also inherently monitors and detects the breathing phase through its own operational parameters and timing systems. The control system that regulates the radiation beam's activation and deactivation also serves to detect and respond to breathing cycle variations, eliminating the need for separate dedicated breathing monitoring devices and reducing overall system complexity while maintaining high delivery accuracy.
3Productivity
If radiation is delivered in continuous mode, then the treatment can be completed faster, but the moving target and surrounding healthy tissue cannot be adequately protected during target excursions
Solution Approach 1:
The radiation beam operates in periodic burst mode, being activated during favorable breathing phases when the target is in the correct position and deactivated during unfavorable phases when the target moves outside the acceptable range. This periodic action maintains treatment precision by ensuring radiation is only delivered when the target is properly positioned, while still achieving reasonable treatment speed by delivering radiation intensively during the active phases rather than using low-intensity continuous delivery.
Data Source
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AI summary
Some aspects include a system (100), apparatus (100), and method (500) for obtaining (S505) a burst mode treatment plan to be administered by a radiotherapy device, the burst mode treatment plan prescribing parameters for one or more dynamic axes, parameters for one or more static axes, and position parameters for the one or more dynamic axes corresponding to a prescribed delivery period of burst mode irradiation; receiving (S515) an indication of occurrences of a substantially periodic treatment opportunity for a target volume of a patient from a gating device, the treatment opportunity being a period of time the target volume is in a position to be irradiated according to the burst mode treatment plan; synchronizing (S525) the treatment opportunity and the prescribed delivery period of burst mode irradiation; and irradiating (S540) the target volume during the synchronization of the treatment opportunity and the prescribed delivery period of burst mode irradiation.