Charged Particle Therapy Control System for Precise Tumor Targeting
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current charged particle irradiation therapy systems face challenges in accurately and precisely delivering a uniform radiation dose to tumors while minimizing damage to surrounding healthy tissue, requiring improved control over patient positioning, radiation energy, intensity, timing, and distribution.
Innovation Solution
A charged particle treatment delivery control system that integrates a main controller to manage imaging, patient positioning, and radiation delivery, using a multi-axis and/or multi-field raster beam charged particle accelerator, with features like negative ion beam sources, synchrotrons, and X-ray systems for precise tumor targeting and radiation distribution.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If charged particle irradiation therapy is used to treat tumors, then tumor treatment effectiveness is improved, but damage to surrounding healthy tissue increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by using a raster beam system that delivers radiation in a scanning pattern, concentrating the beam only at the tumor location at any given moment while leaving surrounding healthy tissue unaffected. The multi-axis positioning system enables precise localization of the radiation dose to the tumor volume, ensuring that high-dose radiation is delivered only where needed.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs dynamic control through the raster beam scanning mechanism and multi-axis positioning system that continuously adjusts the beam position and patient positioning in real-time during treatment. This dynamic approach allows the treatment system to track and adapt to tumor position changes, maintaining precise targeting throughout the treatment session.
2Measurement precision
If precise tumor targeting is achieved through multi-axis positioning, then radiation delivery accuracy is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies universality by integrating multiple positioning functions into a unified multi-axis positioning system that handles both patient positioning and beam positioning. The main controller coordinates multiple positioning axes (including gantry rotation, collimator rotation, and couch positioning) through a single integrated control architecture, reducing operational complexity despite the multiple degrees of freedom.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements feedback control through the main controller that continuously monitors and adjusts the positioning of multiple system components. The controller receives position information from encoders and sensors on each axis and makes real-time adjustments to maintain the desired beam-to-tumor alignment, compensating for mechanical tolerances and positioning errors.
3Manufacturing precision
If radiation dose uniformity across the tumor is improved, then treatment effectiveness increases, but control system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies periodic action through the raster beam scanning mechanism that systematically moves the radiation beam across the tumor in a predetermined scanning pattern. The beam is turned on and off periodically as it scans through different positions, delivering radiation in controlled pulses that accumulate to achieve uniform dose distribution across the entire tumor volume while allowing for cooling periods between pulses.
Data Source
AI summary
The invention relates to a method and apparatus for control of a charged particle cancer therapy system. A treatment delivery control system is used to directly control multiple subsystems of the cancer therapy system without direct communication between selected subsystems, which enhances safety, simplifies quality assurance and quality control, and facilitates programming. For example, the treatment delivery control system directly controls one or more of: an imaging system, a positioning system, an injection system, a radio-frequency quadrupole system, a ring accelerator or synchrotron, an extraction system, a beam line, an irradiation nozzle, a gantry, a display system, a targeting system, and a verification system. Generally, the control system integrates subsystems and/or integrates output of one or more of the above described cancer therapy system elements with inputs of one or more of the above described cancer therapy system elements.