Radiation Treatment Plan Synchronization for Breathing Motion
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing radiation treatment plans struggle to accurately account for cyclic movement of body parts, such as breathing, leading to challenges in planning and administering treatment due to the potential misalignment of target volumes and adjacent tissues.
Innovation Solution
A control circuit optimizes a radiation treatment plan by analyzing a series of temporally dispersed images of a patient's dynamically-moving parts, such as the chest, to generate a personalized treatment plan that synchronizes with the patient's breathing cycle, adjusting gantry speed as needed to ensure precise delivery.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If a standard radiation treatment plan is used without accounting for cyclic movement, then the treatment plan is simpler to generate and administer, but the alignment between target volume and adjacent tissues deteriorates due to movement during treatment
Solution Approach 1:
The treatment plan transitions from a static approach to a dynamic one by incorporating multiple images captured at different phases of the cyclic movement cycle. The system optimizes treatment parameters separately for each phase (first part optimized with first image, second part optimized with second image), allowing the plan to adapt to the dynamic nature of body movement during treatment delivery.
2Measurement precision
If multiple temporally dispersed images are used to optimize different parts of the treatment plan, then treatment accuracy improves, but the complexity of plan generation and administration increases
Solution Approach 1:
The treatment plan is segmented into multiple parts, each optimized independently using a specific image from the temporal series. This segmentation allows the complex problem of dynamic movement compensation to be broken down into manageable optimization tasks, where each part corresponds to a specific phase of the movement cycle and can be optimized separately before being combined into the complete treatment plan.
3Productivity
If the treatment plan is optimized for a broader range of the breathing cycle, then patient comfort and treatment efficiency improve, but the precision of dose delivery to the target volume may deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
Different parts of the treatment plan are optimized with different image data corresponding to different phases of the breathing cycle. This allows each segment of the treatment to have locally optimized parameters tailored to the specific anatomical configuration at that phase, ensuring precise dose delivery for each local condition while collectively covering a broader range of the breathing cycle for improved efficiency and comfort.
Data Source
AI summary
A control circuit accesses a plurality of images of a particular patient (such as, for example, a plurality of computed tomography images), which images are temporally dispersed and collectively depict a particular dynamically-moving part of that particular patient over time. The control circuit then optimizes a first part of a radiation treatment plan as a function of a first one of the plurality of images and optimizes a second, different part of the radiation treatment plan as a function of a second, different one of the plurality of images. The control circuit can then output an optimized radiation treatment plan.