Cardiac Target Radiotherapy With Motion-Split Beam Control

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing radiotherapy techniques struggle to accurately and efficiently control treatment beams for cardiac targets due to complex physiological motions, particularly cardiac and respiratory movements, leading to potential irradiation of unintended areas and prolonged treatment times.

Innovation Solution

A radiotherapy device with a controller that generates beam shaping and gating control signals based on detected cardiac and respiratory motions, using MR imaging and physiological motion components to dynamically adjust the treatment beam.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Measurement precision

If beam gating is used to account for cardiac motion, then irradiation accuracy to cardiac targets is improved, but treatment time increases significantly

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveirradiation accuracyVSAvoidtreatment time
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments the physiological motion into two distinct components: respiratory motion and cardiac motion. This segmentation allows different control strategies to be applied to each component - beam shaping for respiratory motion and beam gating for cardiac motion - thereby optimizing both accuracy and treatment time by addressing each motion type with its most effective control method.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

2Measurement precision

If beam shaping is used to account for respiratory motion, then irradiation accuracy is improved, but the system cannot respond quickly enough to cardiac motion

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveirradiation accuracyVSAvoidresponse speed
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSSpeed

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments the physiological motion into two distinct components: respiratory motion and cardiac motion. This segmentation allows different control strategies to be applied to each component - beam shaping for respiratory motion and beam gating for cardiac motion - thereby optimizing both accuracy and treatment time by addressing each motion type with its most effective control method.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent implements dynamic control by using real-time detection of physiological motions and adjusting beam parameters accordingly. The system dynamically switches between beam shaping and beam gating strategies based on the detected motion components, enabling rapid response to cardiac motion while maintaining accuracy for respiratory motion compensation.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #15Dynamics

3Measurement precision

If simultaneous gating for both respiratory and cardiac phases is applied, then irradiation precision to cardiac targets is improved, but treatment becomes impractically long

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveirradiation precisionVSAvoidtreatment efficiency
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments the physiological motion into two distinct components: respiratory motion and cardiac motion. This segmentation allows different control strategies to be applied to each component - beam shaping for respiratory motion and beam gating for cardiac motion - thereby optimizing both accuracy and treatment time by addressing each motion type with its most effective control method.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent applies partial gating action by using beam shaping for respiratory motion compensation and only gating for cardiac motion when necessary. This partial application of gating, rather than simultaneous gating for both motion types, maintains irradiation precision while avoiding impractically long treatment times.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #16Partial or excessive action

4Measurement precision

If collimator movement is used to adapt beam shape to tumour location, then irradiation accuracy is improved, but the system cannot respond quickly enough to cardiac motion

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveirradiation accuracyVSAvoidresponse speed
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSSpeed

Solution Approach 1:

The patent implements dynamic control by using real-time detection of physiological motions and adjusting beam parameters accordingly. The system dynamically switches between beam shaping and beam gating strategies based on the detected motion components, enabling rapid response to cardiac motion while maintaining accuracy for respiratory motion compensation.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #15Dynamics

Data Source

PatentEP4106868B1Treatment technique for cardiac targets
Publication Date: 2025.10.01 ELEKTA AB
  • EP4106868B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP4106868B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP4106868B1 patent drawingFigure 3a~3b

AI summary

A radiotherapy device is disclosed. The radiotherapy device includes a radiation source, a detecting means and controller communicatively coupled to the radiation source and the detecting means. The radiation source is configured to generate a treatment beam for irradiating a subject. The detecting means is configured to detect a motion of the subject, the motion comprising a first physiological motion component and a second physiological motion component. The controller is configured to generate a beam shaping control signal based on the first physiological motion component and to generate a beam gating control signal based on the second physiological motion component