Hypoxic Region Focused Radiotherapy Calibration
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current radiotherapy methods face challenges in delivering sufficient radiation doses to hypoxic tumor regions while minimizing exposure to normal tissues, often resulting in ineffective cancer treatment or radiation-induced complications.
Innovation Solution
The calibration of image-guided radiotherapy treatment plans involves identifying hypoxic and resistance regions within tumors using three-dimensional imaging, allowing for higher doses to be applied to hypoxic regions and lower doses to resistance and sensitive regions, with the hypoxic region-focused dose exceeding 120% of the prescribed dose and the resistance region-focused dose being lower than the hypoxic region-focused dose.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If higher radiation doses are delivered to hypoxic tumor regions, then tumor treatment effectiveness is improved, but radiation exposure to normal tissues increases causing complications
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies different radiation doses to different regions of the tumor based on oxygenation status. Hypoxic regions receive higher doses (HRF dose >120% of prescribed dose) while well-oxygenated regions receive standard doses. This local differentiation allows effective treatment of radioresistant hypoxic areas while protecting normal tissues from excessive radiation exposure.
Solution Approach 2:
The tumor is segmented into distinct regions based on oxygenation status (hypoxic vs. well-oxygenated) using imaging techniques. This segmentation enables the treatment plan to deliver differentiated radiation doses to each segment, addressing the radioresistance of hypoxic regions without uniformly increasing exposure to all tumor and normal tissues.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If standard radiation dose limits are applied to all tumor regions, then normal tissue safety is maintained, but hypoxic regions receive insufficient dose for effective treatment
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements local quality by assigning different radiation dose levels to different tumor subregions. The hypoxic region-focused (HRF) dose exceeds 120% of the prescribed dose specifically in hypoxic areas, while the resistance region-focused (RRF) dose is applied to intermediate regions. This allows breakthrough treatment of radioresistant hypoxic regions while maintaining normal tissue safety through spatially selective dosing.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the radiation dose parameter selectively in hypoxic regions. By identifying hypoxic areas through imaging and applying elevated doses (>120% of prescribed dose) only to these regions, the treatment overcomes the radioresistance characteristic of hypoxic tumor cells without requiring uniform dose escalation that would compromise normal tissue safety.
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention features calibration methods for radiotherapy treatment plans. An image-guided radiotherapy system for tumor treatment featuring a hypoxic-region-focused (HRF) radiation dose is calibrated using a phantom. The treatment plans may also feature a boosted dose to the resistance region of the tumor. The HRF radiation dose may be greater than 120% of a predetermined prescribed radiation dose for the tumor.