Multimodal Proton Therapy Planning System
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current radiation therapy techniques face challenges in generating treatment plans that effectively kill tumoral cells while minimizing damage to adjacent healthy cells, particularly due to the limitations of conventional dose deposition rates.
Innovation Solution
A treatment planning system (TPS) that combines conventional and ultra-high dose deposition rates (CDR and HDR) to generate plans for charged particle beams, such as proton beams, allowing for optimal distribution of doses to tumoral and healthy cells across multiple fractions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If conventional dose deposition rates are used to deliver total target dose to tumoral cells, then treatment can be performed with existing equipment, but healthy cells receive excessive dose causing damage
Solution Approach 1:
The treatment plan segments the total target dose into multiple fractions, delivering portions at different dose deposition rates (conventional and ultra-high) across multiple sessions. This segmentation allows the tumoral cells to receive cumulative sufficient dose while healthy cells receive lower cumulative dose, resolving the contradiction between effective tumour treatment and healthy tissue sparing.
Solution Approach 2:
The treatment employs periodic action by distributing irradiation fractions over multiple sessions with recovery periods between them. During recovery periods, healthy cells can repair damage while tumoral cells continue to accumulate dose. The periodic delivery of conventional and ultra-high dose fractions optimizes the balance between tumour kill and healthy tissue preservation.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If ultra-high dose deposition rates are used to spare healthy cells, then healthy cell damage is reduced, but equipment capabilities and treatment planning complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system changes the dose deposition rate parameter between conventional and ultra-high rates for different fractions of the treatment plan. By varying this critical parameter across multiple fractions and sessions, the system achieves healthy tissue sparing while managing tumour dose, effectively resolving the contradiction between protecting healthy cells and managing system complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The treatment planning system dynamically adjusts dose deposition rates based on the specific requirements of each fraction and session. This dynamic approach allows flexible combination of conventional and ultra-high rate fractions, optimizing the balance between tumour control and healthy tissue protection while adapting to patient-specific conditions.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If multiple fractions are used to deliver total target dose, then healthy cells can receive lower dose per fraction, but treatment duration increases
Solution Approach 1:
The total target dose is segmented into multiple fractions delivered at different rates (conventional and ultra-high) across multiple sessions. This segmentation reduces the dose per fraction to healthy cells, allowing them to recover between sessions, thereby reducing overall treatment duration while maintaining effective tumour treatment.
Solution Approach 2:
The treatment plan maintains continuity of useful action by incorporating both conventional and ultra-high dose fractions that collectively deliver the required tumour dose. The combination of different rate fractions ensures continuous progress towards tumour control while managing healthy tissue exposure, optimizing the time-efficiency of treatment.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The system ensures that tumoral cells receive a total target dose sufficient for destruction, while keeping the total healthy dose below thresholds that would cause damage, thereby enhancing the efficacy of cancer treatment and sparing healthy tissues.
Implementation Method 1
protons deposit most of their energy close to the end of their beam path, forming a so-called Bragg peak
Data Source
AI summary
A system for treating a target tissue with a charged particle beam, wherein the target tissue includes tumoral cells surrounded by or encloses healthy cells of healthy tissue, the system comprising a computer configured to receive a total target dose, receive a fraction number irradiation fractions for treating, receive a maximum healthy fraction dose and a maximum healthy total dose, receive an equivalence coefficient (α), divide the total target dose into the target fraction doses, and determine a ratio of a target fraction dose to be deposited at a conventional deposition rate and a complementary ratio of the target fraction dose to be deposited at a high deposition rate based on an equivalent fraction dose, the maximum healthy fraction dose, a total equivalent dose, and the maximum healthy total dose.