Disclosed herein are systems and methods for adapting and/or updating radiotherapy treatment plans based on biological and/or physiological data and/or anatomical data extracted or calculated from imaging data acquired in real-time (e.g., during a treatment session). Functional imaging data acquired at the time of radiation treatment is used to modify a treatment plan and/or dose delivery instructions to provide a prescribed dose distribution to patient target regions. Also disclosed herein are methods for evaluating treatment plans based on imaging data acquired in real-time.

The present invention involves positionally identifying several anatomical structures of interest of a patient's anatomy on images which have been acquired at different points of time. For each anatomical structure a separate image fusion transformation between these images is performed. For at least one of the image fusion transformations it is then determined whether this transformation is within a predetermined threshold, wherein for this determination, at least one further image fusion transformation of another anatomical structure is taken into account.

The invention is directed to a data processing method for determining the consistency of registration of the position of a treatment body part to be treated by radiotherapy with a treatment beam arrangement of at least one position of a treatment beam issued by a treatment device, the treatment body part being a soft tissue part of an anatomical structure of a patient's body and the data processing method being constituted to be executed by a computer and comprising the following steps: g) acquiring CT data comprising predetermined CT information about a position of the treatment body part relative to a bony structure of the patient's body and about a first position of the bony structure relative to the treatment beam arrangement; h) acquiring x-ray data comprising x-ray information about a second position of the bony structure relative to the treatment beam arrangement; i) determining, based on the x-ray data and the CT data, bony structure position first transformation data comprising bony structure position first transformation information about a first transformation between the first position and the second position of the bony structure; j) acquiring CBCT data comprising CBCT information about the position of the treatment body part relative to the treatment beam arrangement or relative to the bony structure; k) determining, based on the CBCT data and the CT data, bony structure position second transformation data comprising bony structure position second transformation information about a second transformation between the first position and a third position of the bony structure relative to the treatment beam arrangement; determining, based on the bony structure position first transformation data and the bony structure position second transformation data, transformation difference data comprising transformation difference information about a difference between the first and second transformations.

For delivering an image-guided radiation therapy treatment to a moving structure included in a region of a patient body a series of first images of the region of the patient body in different phases of a motion of the structure is acquired in accordance with a first imaging mode. The series of first images is associated with a series of second images of the patient body in essentially the same phases of the motion of the target structure, the second images being acquired in a second imaging mode. During the treatment, a third image is acquired using the second imaging mode during the radiation therapy treatment and a continuation of the radiation therapy treatment is planned on the basis of data relating to one of the first images selected on the basis of a comparison between the third image and the second images associated with the first images.

Apparatus and techniques are described herein for nuclear magnetic resonance (MR) projection imaging. Such projection imaging may be used to control radiation therapy delivery to a subject, such as including receiving reference imaging information, generating a two-dimensional (2D) projection image using imaging information obtained via nuclear magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, the 2D projection image corresponding to a specified projection direction, the specified projection direction including a path traversing at least a portion of an imaging subject, determining a change between the generated 2D projection image and the reference imaging information, and controlling delivery of the radiation therapy at least in part using the determined change between the obtained 2D projection image and the reference imaging information.

A system for treating a patient during radiation therapy is disclosed. The system includes a shell, a plurality of material inserts disposed in the shell, where each material insert of the plurality of material inserts respectively shapes a distribution of a dose delivered to the patient by a respective beam of a plurality of beams emitted from a nozzle of a radiation treatment system, and a scaffold component disposed in the shell that holds the plurality material inserts in place relative to the patient such that each material insert lies on a path of at least one of the beams.

During a focused-ultrasound or other non-invasive treatment procedure, the motion of the treatment target or other object(s) of interest can be tracked in real time based on (i) the comparison of treatment images against a reference library of images that have been acquired prior to treatment for the anticipated range of motion and have been processed to identify the location of the target or other object(s) therein and (ii) complementary information associated with the stage of the target motion during treatment.

These teachings provide for accessing optimization information comprising at least one isocenter that corresponds to a body outline for a particular patient, field geometry information for a particular radiation treatment platform, and dosimetric data. The optimization information can further comprise a model of a body outline for the patient. A control circuit optimizes a radiation treatment plan as a function of the optimization information to provide an optimized radiation treatment plan where radiation dose levels delivered to the particular patient from a particular field depends on the relative volume magnitude of field path intersections to thereby reduce radiation dose delivery to healthy patient tissue in regions having relatively more overlapping fields.

Systems and methods are disclosed for monitoring anatomic position of a human subject and modifying a radiotherapy treatment based on anatomic position changes, as determined with a regression model trained to estimate movement of a region of interest. Example operations for movement monitoring and therapy control include: obtaining 3D image data for a subject, which provides a reference volume and at least one defined region of interest; obtaining real-time 2D image data corresponding to the subject, captured during the radiotherapy treatment session; extracting features from the 2D image data; producing a relative motion estimation of a region of interest with a machine learning regression model, the model trained to estimate a spatial transformation from the 2D image data based on training from the reference volume; and controlling a radiotherapy beam of a radiotherapy machine used in the radiotherapy session, based on the relative motion estimation.

The invention comprises a method and apparatus for reducing a kinetic energy of positively charged particles, comprising the steps of: (1) transporting the positively charged particles from an accelerator into an exit nozzle system along a beam line; (2) providing a first chamber of the exit nozzle system, the first chamber comprising: an incident side comprising an incident aperture, an exit side comprising an exit aperture, and a beam path of the positively charged particles from the incident aperture to the exit aperture; (3) filling the beam path in the chamber with a liquid; and (4) using the liquid to reduce the kinetic energy of the positively charged particles. The kinetic energy dissipater is optionally used in combination with a proton therapy cancer treatment system and/or a proton tomography imaging system.