Abstract: Systems and methods for developing a treatment plan for irradiating a treatment volume within a patient are disclosed. In accordance with the present invention, control points used to calculate a dose of radiation delivered to the treatment volume may be combined to result in a smaller number of control points. The smaller number of control points may allow more efficient calculation of dose distributions resulting in a treatment plan that can be delivered to the patient earlier or may allow additional iterations of treatment plan optimization resulting in a more accurate dose distribution being delivered to the patient.

Abstract: Systems and methods for developing a treatment plan for irradiating a treatment volume within a patient are disclosed. In accordance with the present invention, control points used to calculate a dose of radiation delivered to the treatment volume may be combined to result in a smaller number of control points. The smaller number of control points may allow more efficient calculation of dose distributions resulting in a treatment plan that can be delivered to the patient earlier or may allow additional iterations of treatment plan optimization resulting in a more accurate dose distribution being delivered to the patient.

Abstract: Systems and methods for developing a treatment plan for irradiating a treatment volume within a patient are disclosed. In accordance with the present invention, control points used to calculate a dose of radiation delivered to the treatment volume may be combined to result in a smaller number of control points. The smaller number of control points may allow more efficient calculation of dose distributions resulting in a treatment plan that can be delivered to the patient earlier or may allow additional iterations of treatment plan optimization resulting in a more accurate dose distribution being delivered to the patient.

Abstract: A stochastic patient movement model and a dosage delivery plan are used to determine probabilities of dosages received by a target volume during a radiation treatment. The stochastic patient movement model is created by identifying possible sequences of patient positions during the treatment with probabilities specified for each. The dosage delivery plan specifies dosage levels and radiation locations over time. Accumulated dosages are calculated for each sequence of patient positions and the dosage delivery plan. The specified probability for each sequence is then correlated to the accumulated dosage for that sequence.

Abstract: Systems and methods for developing a treatment plan for irradiating a treatment volume within a patient are disclosed. In accordance with the present invention, control points used to calculate a dose of radiation delivered to the treatment volume may be combined to result in a smaller number of control points. The smaller number of control points may allow more efficient calculation of dose distributions resulting in a treatment plan that can be delivered to the patient earlier or may allow additional iterations of treatment plan optimization resulting in a more accurate dose distribution being delivered to the patient.

Abstract: Systems and methods for developing a treatment plan for irradiating a treatment volume within a patient are disclosed. In accordance with the present invention, control points used to calculate a dose of radiation delivered to the treatment volume may be combined to result in a smaller number of control points. The smaller number of control points may allow more efficient calculation of dose distributions resulting in a treatment plan that can be delivered to the patient earlier or may allow additional iterations of treatment plan optimization resulting in a more accurate dose distribution being delivered to the patient.

Abstract: Systems and methods for developing a treatment plan for irradiating a treatment volume within a patient are disclosed. In accordance with the present invention, control points used to calculate a dose of radiation delivered to the treatment volume may be combined to result in a smaller number of control points. The smaller number of control points may allow more efficient calculation of dose distributions resulting in a treatment plan that can be delivered to the patient earlier or may allow additional iterations of treatment plan optimization resulting in a more accurate dose distribution being delivered to the patient.

Abstract: A method of providing intensity modulated radiation therapy to a moving target is disclosed. The target moves periodically along a trajectory that is projected onto a multi-leaf collimator (MLC) plane. The MLC plane is divided into thin slices parallel to the movement of the target. The present invention optimizes the leaf sequence such that, within each slice, if a point receives radiation, all other points in that slice that receive the same amount or more fluence are also receiving radiation at the same time.

Abstract: A method of providing intensity modulated radiation therapy to a moving target is disclosed. The target moves periodically along a trajectory that is projected onto a multi-leaf collimator (MLC) plane. The MLC plane is divided into thin slices parallel to the movement of the target. The present invention optimizes the leaf sequence such that, within each slice, if a point receives radiation, all other points in that slice that receive the same amount or more fluence are also receiving radiation at the same time.

Abstract: Systems and methods of controlling the leaves of an aperture in radiation treatment are disclosed. In some embodiments, these systems and methods allow the delivery of different radiation fluences to different parts of a treatment volume in a single rotation of the aperture around the treatment volume. In some embodiments, different radiation fluences are achieved by radiating different parts of the treatment volume from opposing positions of the aperture around the treatment volume. In some embodiments, different radiation fluences are achieved by assigning different leaf pairs to radiate different parts of the treatment volume.

Abstract: The present invention provides an intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) method for treating a target region that minimizes the tongue and groove effect. By minimizing that effect, striping in the final delivered fluence is reduced, which improves the overall quality of the radiation delivery. In the method, compensating functions Ci(x) are added to leaf coordinates ai(x) and bi(x) for all of the leaf pairs i in a leaf sequence algorithm, where Ci(x) is chosen to match the mechanical limitations of the MLC and to minimize non-weighted or weighted sums of the tongue and groove effects, where the weighting is time-dependent, position-dependent, or time- and position-dependent, or to minimize the total treatment time, changes to the original MLC sequence, or the tongue and groove effect distribution variance in spatial or temporal coordinates.

Abstract: A stochastic patient movement model and a dosage delivery plan are used to determine probabilities of dosages received by a target volume during a radiation treatment. The stochastic patient movement model is created by identifying possible sequences of patient positions during the treatment with probabilities specified for each. The dosage delivery plan specifies dosage levels and radiation locations over time. Accumulated dosages are calculated for each sequence of patient positions and the dosage delivery plan. The specified probability for each sequence is then correlated to the accumulated dosage for that sequence.

Abstract: Systems and methods of controlling the leaves of an aperture in radiation treatment are disclosed. In some embodiments, these systems and methods allow the delivery of different radiation fluences to different parts of a treatment volume in a single rotation of the aperture around the treatment volume. In some embodiments, different radiation fluences are achieved by radiating different parts of the treatment volume from opposing positions of the aperture around the treatment volume. In some embodiments, different radiation fluences are achieved by assigning different leaf pairs to radiate different parts of the treatment volume.