Provided is an irradiation planning apparatus including: a three-dimensional CT value data acquisition unit (36); a prescription data input processing unit (32) which acquires prescription data; a stopping power ratio conversion unit (37) and a nuclear reaction effective density conversion unit (38) which respectively generate first conversion data (41) and second conversion data (42) on the basis of three-dimensional CT value data; and a calculation unit (33) which calculates a dose distribution on the basis of the prescription data, the first conversion data (41), and the second conversion data (42), wherein the stopping power ratio conversion unit (37) and the nuclear reaction effective density conversion unit (38) perform correction processing for correcting data obtained from the three-dimensional CT value data, using a physical quantity indicative of a likelihood of spalling particles of incident charged particle beam (3), and then determine the dose distribution. Thus, in calculation of a dose distribution in a body in particle beam irradiation planning, a dose error introduced by a difference between the probability of nuclear reaction initiated, in a body, by incident particles and the probability of nuclear reaction initiated, in water, by incident particles is simply and accurately corrected.

Methods, systems, and apparatuses are disclosed for radiation treatment of tumors based at least in part on patient-specific imaging information. The methods, systems and apparatuses include computer programs encoded on computer-readable media. The methods include acquiring imaging information relating to a target to be treated. The imaging information is non-anatomic imaging information relating to the target acquired from at least one imaging marker that reflects at least one of the metabolic, physiological and histological features of the target. The methods further include computing a radiation dose based at least on the imaging information.

In one embodiment, a method includes receiving treatment information relating to a treatment plan for proton- or ion-beam therapy intended to irradiate a target tissue; receiving machine-limitation information relating to one or more limitations of one or more machines involved in the proton- or ion-beam therapy; determining a time-optimized beam current for a proton or ion beam based on the treatment information and the machine-limitation information, wherein the time-optimized beam current minimizes the time required to deliver a required quantity of monitor units to one of a plurality of spots, wherein each of the plurality of spots is a particular area of the target tissue; and delivering the time-optimized beam current to the particular area.

A positioning apparatus and a positioning method has a control element and function 40 includes a radiograph acquisition element 41 that acquires radiograph data detected by two radiography systems selected from a group consisting of a flat panel detector, a DRR (Digital Reconstructed Radiograph) generation element 42 that generates DRR in two different directions by virtually performing fluoroscopic projection relative to the 3-dimensional CT data obtained through the network 17, a positioning element 43 that positions a CT to the X-ray fluoroscopic radiograph obtained from two radiography systems, and a displacement distance calculation element 44 that calculates a displacement distance of the tabletop 31 based on the gap between radiographs for improved positioning. The positioning element 43 has a multidimensional optimization element 45 and a 1-dimensional optimization element 46 that optimize parameters relative to rotation and translation of the fluoroscopic projection to maximize an evaluation function that evaluates a matching degree between the DRR and the X-ray fluoroscopic radiograph.

Apparatus for planning a diffusing alpha-emitter radiation therapy (DaRT) treatment session. The apparatus includes an output interface and a memory configured with a plurality of tables which provide an accumulated measure of radiation over a specific time period, due to one or more types of DaRT radiotherapy sources which emit daughter radionuclides from the source, for a plurality of different distances and angles relative to the DaRT radiotherapy source. In addition, a processor is configured to receive a description of a layout of a plurality of DaRT radiotherapy sources in a tumor, to calculate a radiation dose distribution in the tumor responsive to the layout, using the tables in the memory, and to output feedback for the treatment responsive to the radiation dose distribution, through the output interface.

Systems and methods for radiation treatment planning that integrate the MV therapeutic radiation dose imparted to a subject together with the kV imaging radiation dose imparted to a subject during radiation therapy are provided. For instance, dose optimization is based on the combined effect of both a kV imaging dose that is imparted to the subject during the image guided radiation treatment procedure and the therapeutic dose delivered to the subject by a treatment radiation source, such as an MV source. Using this optimization, the kV beam and MV beam are equally treated as radiation producing sources and are thus optimized together at the treatment planning stage to produce a patient treatment plan that optimally uses the kV imaging dose. Thus, the kV beam is treated both as an additional source of therapeutic radiation and as a tool for imaging the subject.

A radiation-treatment plan that comprises a plurality of dose-delivery fractions can be optimized by using fraction dose objectives and at least one other, different dose objective. This use of fraction dose objectives can comprise accumulating doses delivered in previous dose-delivery fractions. The other, different dose objective can comprise a remaining total dose objective, a predictive dose objective, or some other dose objective of choice. An existing radiation-treatment plan having a corresponding resultant quality and that is defined, at least in part, by at least one delivery parameter can be re-optimized by specifying at least one constraint as regards that delivery parameter as a function, at least in part, of that resultant quality and then applying that constraint when re-optimizing the existing radiation-treatment plan.

The invention discloses a dynamic intensity-modulated segmentation method for an orthogonal double-layer grating blade device. The core of the segmentation algorithm is to construct a virtual single-layer grating after the velocities of the two-layer gratings are synthesized to perform dynamic intensity modulation of the single-layer grating (sliding-window) segmentation, and finally use two layers of gratings to conform to each segment. In order to reduce the segmentation error, the invention provides two optimization methods: blade motion trajectory optimization method and segment weight optimization method. The blade motion trajectory optimization method is to optimize the objective function under certain constraints with the motion trajectory of each blade as a variable under the condition that the segment weight is fixed. Segment weight optimization method is to optimize the time points of each segment when the blade motion trajectory is fixed. Both of the two optimization methods can reduce the error of the segmentation intensity and improve the optimization effect.

A system for estimating a dose from a proton therapy plan includes a memory that stores machine instructions and a processor coupled to the memory that executes the machine instructions to subdivide a representation of a volume of interest in a patient anatomy traversed by a planned proton field into a plurality of voxels. The processor further executes the machine instructions to determine the distance from the source of the planned proton beam to one of the voxels. The processor also executes the machine instructions to compute the discrete contribution at the voxel to an estimated dose received by the volume of interest from the planned proton beam based on the distance between the source and the volume of interest.

A method and apparatus is presented for optimizing a treatment plan for irradiation therapy. The method includes defining a single objective function based on a plurality of objective functions that are each associated with a plurality of tissue types within a subject, upper and lower bounds for each objective function and a plurality of apertures. The method also includes determining a radiation dose delivered to voxels of each tissue type based on minimizing the single objective function based on the plurality of apertures with initial values at each angle. The method also includes delivering a beam of radiation with controlled intensity and beam cross-sectional shape at each angle based on the plurality of apertures.