Abstract: A method for dynamically estimating a biological effect of a variable combination of non-photon radiation in accordance with a relative biological effectiveness, RBE, model including at least one biological effect multiplier ?(T,E) which depends on particle type T and/or particle energy E, the method comprising: obtaining one or more non-photon radiation contributions D(i)(T,E), 1?i?N, at least one of said contributions including multiple particle types and/or multiple particle energies; storing per-contribution dose-weighted averages ?(i), 1?i?N, of said at least one biological effect multiplier with respect to each of the one or more contributions; and in response to obtaining an assignment ? of the combination, the assignment being in terms of non-negative coefficients k1, k2, . . .

Abstract: A machine learning-based method of generating a radiotherapy treatment plan for a patient, comprises dose prediction and dose mimicking, wherein the dose prediction step involves using a machine learning system that has been trained to consider at least one optimality criterion related to physical or technical restrictions that will affect the delivery of the treatment plan. Thus, at least one of the factors that are normally taken into account in the dose mimicking step is introduced in the dose prediction step. The invention also relates to a method of training such a machine learning system for use in radiotherapy treatment planning, a computer program product and a computer system.

Abstract: It is provided a method for generating a plurality of potential treatment plans, each treatment plan specifying a distribution of radiation to a target volume, the method being performed by a treatment planning system and comprising the steps of: generating a plurality of potential treatment plans (12), for performing multi-criteria optimization (MCO), based on a set of optimization functions. At least one optimization function depends on the distribution of the product of radiation dose and linear energy transfer, LET, in a specified region of the patient, yielding a plurality of treatment plans.

Abstract: The trajectory of a beam of charged particles within a patient may be changed by the application of a magnetic field. In that way, the position of the beam's Bragg peak may be controlled for a beam having a specific direction and energy.

Abstract: A ripple filter unit comprises a first and a second ripple filter, substantially identical, are arranged so that they overlap each other in a beam, with substantially the same orientation and movable relative to each other in such a way as to vary the filter characteristics dynamically. In this way, the modulation characteristics of the ripple filter unit can be varied.

Abstract: A computer-based method of optimizing a radiotherapy treatment plan for a patient is proposed, wherein a complete treatment comprising both external beam therapy and brachytherapy is optimized in one procedure using an optimization problem comprising an objective function designed to optimize the total dose distribution as a combination of a first dose distribution to be provided by a first radiation set and a second dose distribution to be provided by a second radiation set. One of the radiation sets is external beam radiotherapy and the other is brachytherapy. The optimization is based on a total desired dose for the whole treatment, images of the patient before the treatment starts and an estimated image of the patient after the first radiation set has been delivered.

Abstract: In cases where material properties of a structure within or outside a patient receiving radiotherapy treatment, robust planning can be used, based on different scenarios with different material property values using a material override function present in the treatment planning system. A computer-based method of generating a radiotherapy treatment plan for a patient, based on an image of the patient and a desired dose. In cases where material properties of a structure within or outside a patient receiving radiotherapy treatment, robust planning can be used, based on different scenarios with different material property values using a material override function present in the treatment planning system. Robust planning is performed based on the at least two scenarios to provide robust evaluation data for each of the at least two scenarios and/or a robust optimized treatment plan with respect to all values in the set of material override values.

Abstract: A radiotherapy treatment plan for grid therapy in which a patient is radiated from a source of radiation with a set of spatially fractionated beams of charged particles such as protons, including varying the direction of each beam in the set of beams. Generating the plan comprises the steps of determining a first path through the patient to a first Bragg peak position and determining a second path through the patient, at least a part of the second path being directed at an angle from the first path to a first deflected Bragg peak position. The beam directions may be varied by means of magnetic fields or by varying the relative angle between the gantry and the patient.

Abstract: A method for generating data representing the volume of part of a body, the method comprising generating a point distribution model “PDM” based on an input dataset comprising data representing at least one surface of part of a body, the PDM defining a surface model dataset based on an average dataset and one or more weight-eigenvector pairs, generating a first surface model dataset based on the PDM by modifying at least one weight of the one or more weight-eigenvector pairs, wherein the first surface model dataset is different from the average dataset, and generating an output volume dataset based on the first surface model dataset and a first reference dataset, the first reference dataset comprising data representing the volume of a corresponding part of a body, the output volume dataset comprising data representing a deformed volume of the corresponding part of the body.

Abstract: It is provided a method for checking quality of a treatment plan, wherein a treatment plan specifies a distribution of radiation to thereby provide radiation to a planning target volume. The method is performed by a quality assurance device and comprises the steps of: obtaining a treatment plan and a corresponding first dose, the treatment plan having been calculated in a treatment planning system, the first dose being a predicted dose to be deposited in the patient using the treatment plan; initiating a calculation of a secondary dose, being a dose deposited by the treatment plan, using a secondary dose calculation algorithm; repeatedly calculating a confidence interval of a comparative statistical measurement by comparing the first dose and the secondary dose over a defined geometric volume; and interrupting the calculation of the secondary dose when the confidence interval is better than at least one predefined criterion.

Abstract: A method (100) for generating a treatment plan specifying an irradiation of a patient, the method comprising: a dose inference stage (112), including using a model to infer a spatial dose from patient data; a dose mimicking stage (116), including executing a robust optimization process to generate a deliverable treatment plan which is consistent with the inferred spatial dose, wherein the robust optimization considers a plurality of scenarios relating to patient data uncertainty.

Abstract: A method of optimizing the use of resources in treatment planning involving more than one radiation set delivered to one or more patients, the radiation sets requiring different resources, respectively, wherein the optimization is performed using an optimization problem comprising an optimization function related to the first and second sets of resources. The method may be used for optimizing one plan for one patient, or a number of plans for different patients, in such a way that the available resources are used in the best possible way.

Abstract: It is provided a method for providing a treatment plan for radiotherapy when the delivery is interrupted, the method being performed by a treatment planning system. The method comprises the steps of: detecting that delivery of a first treatment plan has been interrupted; obtaining an indication of delivery of a partial dose, representing the part of the first treatment plan that was delivered prior to the interruption; generating a second treatment plan, wherein the partial dose delivery forms an input to the second treatment plan generation as a background dose; and optimizing the second treatment plan while considering a plurality of scenarios.

Abstract: A compensating device for use in ion-based radiotherapy may comprise a disk with a number of protrusions may be placed in a radiation beam to affect the ions in the beam in different ways to create an irradiation field from a broad beam. This is particularly useful in FLASH therapy because of the limited time available or modulating the beam. A method of designing such a compensating device is proposed, comprising the steps of obtaining characteristics of an actual treatment plan comprising at least one beam, determining at least one parameter characteristic of the desired energy modulation of the actual plan by performing a dose calculation of the initial plan and, based on the at least one parameter, computing a shape for each of the plurality of elongated elements to modulate the dose of the delivery beam to mimic the dose of the initial plan per beam.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for generating a radiation treatment plan for a volume comprising: receiving a first treatment plan upon which to base a second treatment plan, the first treatment plan indicative of a dose distribution; receiving at least one dose-distribution-derived function configured to provide a value based on at least part of the dose distribution; receiving a target for the respective value of each dose-distribution-derived function comprising receiving a probability distribution; determining an optimization problem, wherein the or each objective function is a function of the dose-distribution-derived function, the respective probability distribution and a respective loss function; performing the optimization process based on said optimization problem; and determining said second treatment plan.

Abstract: A computer-based method of optimizing a radiotherapy treatment plan for a patient is proposed, wherein a treatment plan to be provided by one radiation set is optimized taking into account a previously delivered dose delivered by a different radiation set. One of the radiation sets is external beam radiotherapy and the other is brachytherapy.

Abstract: A deep learning model may be trained to provide an estimated image of the interior of a patient, based on a number of image sets, each image set comprising an interior image of the interior of a person and a contour image of the person's outer contour at a specific point in time. The model is trained to establish an optimized parametrized conversion function G specifying the correlation between the interior of the person and the persons outer contour based on the image sets. The conversion function G can then be used to provide estimated images of patient's interior based on their contours.

Abstract: A method of optimizing a radiotherapy treatment plan for delivering charged particles to a patient by pencil beam scanning, involves optimizing the treatment plan using an optimization problem that is designed to allow spots to differ in at least one of shape and orientation, and optionally also in size. This enables the optimization spots so as to cover the target in the best possible way and with a sharp penumbra along the outer edges of the target. The invention also relates to a computer program product and a computer system for use in such planning and a treatment delivery system for delivering such a plan.

Abstract: Generating a robust radiotherapy treatment plan for a treatment volume, defined using a plurality of voxels, of a subject. A first and at least one second image of the treatment volume are received. A distribution of mapped doses in the first image is generated by mapping a dose defined in the at least one second image to the first image using image registration. An optimization problem is defined using at least one optimization function for a total dose, related to the radiotherapy treatment. At least one optimization function value is calculated based on at least two mapped doses in the distribution of mapped doses in the first image. A radiotherapy treatment plan is generated by optimizing the at least one optimization function value evaluated by taking into account the at least two mapped doses in the distribution of mapped doses.

Abstract: A method for generating a robust radiotherapy treatment plan for a treatment volume of a subject, the treatment volume being defined using a plurality of voxels, the method comprising the steps of defining (S100) an optimization problem using at least one optimization function for a biological endpoint related to the radiotherapy treatment; defining (S102) a set of scenarios comprising at least a first scenario and a second scenario, wherein at least two of the scenarios in the set of scenarios represent different biological models to quantify the same biological endpoint; calculating (S104) an optimization function value for each scenario in the set of scenarios; generating (S106) a radiotherapy treatment plan by robustly optimizing the optimization function value evaluated over the set of scenarios.