Fluency Map Optimization via Bargaining Game for IMRT
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Solution Overview
Problem
In Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT), finding a balance between delivering tumoricidal radiation doses to Planning Target Volume (PTV) while minimizing impact on healthy Organs At Risk (OAR) is challenging due to the difficulty in designing ideal fluency maps that adhere to prescribed dose levels, leading to complex trade-off decisions and inefficient planning processes.
Innovation Solution
The approach transforms the fluency map optimization problem into a cooperative game theory-based bargaining game, using Nash Social Welfare optimization and negotiation powers to balance the trade-offs between cancerous and healthy organs, allowing for flexible penalty functions and meaningful objective values, thereby optimizing radiation dose distribution.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If traditional fluency map optimization methods are used to deliver tumoricidal radiation doses to PTV, then the radiation dose coverage of the target is improved, but the impact on healthy OAR increases due to inability to balance trade-offs
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transforms the fluency map optimization problem into a bargaining game by changing the parameter representation from direct dose constraints to utility functions with disagreement points. This allows dynamic adjustment of negotiation power weights for different organs, enabling the system to find optimal trade-off solutions that maximize PTV dose coverage while minimizing OAR impact through cooperative game theory mechanisms.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces utility functions and disagreement points as intermediary elements between the conflicting requirements of PTV dose delivery and OAR protection. These intermediaries translate clinical objectives into quantifiable metrics that can be balanced through negotiation power weights, facilitating the resolution of trade-offs between target coverage and organ sparing.
2Reliability
If complex trade-off decisions are made to balance PTV and OAR requirements, then the fairness of dose distribution is improved, but the planning process complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent simplifies the planning process by changing the parameter representation from complex multi-objective optimization to a bargaining game framework with clear disagreement points and negotiation power weights. This transformation provides a systematic method for making fair trade-off decisions while reducing planning complexity through automated game-theoretic solution procedures.
3Manufacturing precision
If ideal fluency maps are designed to adhere to prescribed dose levels, then the dose distribution accuracy is improved, but the planning efficiency decreases due to difficulty in finding balanced solutions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent improves planning efficiency by changing the optimization parameters from direct fluency map design to bargaining game solution with disagreement points. This approach automatically generates ideal fluency maps that adhere to prescribed dose levels while maintaining efficiency through the structured negotiation framework, eliminating the need for iterative manual adjustments.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for controlled tumoricidal radiation dose delivery is disclosed. The method includes obtaining an image of a body organ; diving the image into a plurality of voxels; determining a set of feasible actions for the body organ by identifying an upper bound and a lower bound for the body organ; determining a utility function for the body organ; determining a disagreement point by identifying an ideal fluency map and a worst fluency map; determining a negotiation power weight based on a type of the body organ; and optimizing the plurality of radiation dose levels to the plurality of voxels based on the set of feasible actions, the utility function, the disagreement point, and the negotiation power weight. Other aspects, embodiments, and features are also claimed and described.