A brachytherapy treatment planning system includes a processor that: receives a planning image corresponding to at least a portion of a prostate; generates a brachytherapy treatment plan comprising, for each of a plurality of brachytherapy seeds or catheters, a corresponding brachytherapy seed or catheter position in the planning image such that the plurality of brachytherapy seed or catheter positions in the planning image together satisfy a desired radioactive dose objective in the prostate; receives a pre-treatment image corresponding to the at least a portion of a prostate; and maps each brachytherapy seed or catheter position in the planning image to a corresponding position in the pre-treatment image by performing a registration between the planning image and the pre-treatment image.

Medical systems, devices, and methods provide improved radiosurgical techniques for treatment of anxiety disorders (such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), Panic Disorder, Social Phobia, Specific Phobia, and the like). Radiation can be directed from a radiation source outside the patient toward a target tissue deep within the patient's brain using a stereotactic radiosurgical platform, typically without having to impose the surgical trauma associated with accessing deep brain tissues. The target will often include at least a portion of the amygdala, with exemplary treatments being directed to targets that are limited to a sub-region of the amygdala. Rather than applying sufficient radiation to kill the neural tissue within the target, a cellularly sub-lethal dose of the radiation may be applied. Without imposing frank cell death throughout the target, the radiation can mitigate the anxiety disorder, obesity, or the like, often by modulating the level of neural activity within the target and in associated tissues.

An apparatus for determining a contour of a treatment region in a patient includes a computer processor to receive input regarding a contour of at least one organ-at-risk (OAR) adjacent to the treatment region; receive input regarding an initial contour of the treatment region; predict a radiation toxicity to the at least one OAR based on the contour of the at least one OAR, the initial contour of the treatment region, and a radiation treatment regimen; determine whether the predicted radiation toxicity exceeds a threshold; and determine a contour of the treatment region by iteratively modifying the initial contour of the treatment region, and any subsequent modified contours of the treatment region, until a stopping condition is satisfied. The stopping condition can be a preselected number of iterations or that the predicted radiation toxicity using the contour in place of the initial contour is first calculated is below said threshold.

The invention comprises a method and apparatus for directing protons to a tumor, comprising the steps of: (1) holding a patient with a patient support; (2) providing an imaging system comprising: a rotatable unit at least partially surrounding an axial perimeter of the patient support, a translation guide rail, an imaging source attached to the rotatable unit, and an imaging detector attached to the rotatable unit; (3) translating and rotating the imaging source and the imaging detector relative to the patient support using the translation guide rail and the rotatable unit; and (4) providing an attachment section connected: on a first end to a robotic arm positioning system and on a second end to the patient support and the imaging system, the robotic arm positioning system repositioning, relative to a nozzle system linked to the synchrotron, the attachment system supporting the patient support system and the imaging system.

The invention comprises a method and apparatus for using a single robotic positioning arm to simultaneously move, relative to a proton beam path entering a treatment room containing the patient, both: (1) a patient support and (2) an imaging system. The robotic arm moving the imaging system and patient independently from movement of a nozzle system directing protons into the treatment rooms allows: simultaneously translating past the patient and rotating around the patient an X-ray source of the imaging system; translating a rotatable unit, of the imaging system, longitudinally past the patient on a translation guide rail; moving the patient support and the imaging system through at least four degrees of freedom relative to a movable proton beam; and/or simultaneous or alternating movement of the proton treatment beam and the imaging system relative to the patient.

A computerized system and method for determining an optimum amount of radiopharmaceutical therapy (RPT) to administer, comprising: performing processing associated with obtaining activity image information related to at least one agent for sub-units of at least one imaged organ from at least one detector; performing processing associated with running at least one calculation for the activity image information, using at least one computer application, to obtain absorbed dose rate image information; and performing processing associated with adding the absorbed dose rate image information, using, the at least one computer application, to obtain RPT total absorbed dose image information for the at least one imaged organ; wherein macroscopic distribution measurements that are related to microscopic or sub-unit distribution of the at least one agent are utilized.

Visualizing a deformation amount or displacement amount of a region of interest in therapy rendered in an image upon aligning images used in radiation therapy allows for enhancing an accuracy of alignment. In a positioning system 104, an image processing unit 201 calculates a deformation parameter using a non-rigid registration method for a region of interest having been set by a treatment planning device 101 based on a treatment plan CT image and three-dimensional tomographic image imaged for bed positioning and calculates a displacement amount parameter for a region extracted using a region extraction method. The image processing unit 201 calculates a positioning parameter representing a displacement amount of a bed based on the calculated deformation parameter and displacement amount parameter and displays the respective parameters together with an alignment image, thereby allowing for confirmation of the deformation amount and displacement amount.

The present invention relates to a respiratory gating system for a patient using a natural breathing method during radiation therapy, and a method for emitting radiation thereby. A respiratory gating system allowing radiation to be emitted by orienting to the position, which varies according to a patient's breathing, of a subject on which treatment is to be carried out, comprises: a breathing respirator for allowing the patient's respiration amount to be measured; external markers to be respectively adhered to triangulation points outside the human body of the surrounding region of the subject, of the patient, on which treatment is to be carried out; an image diagnosis device for imaging the region of the subject of the patient on which treatment is to be carried out, by photographing the same; and a computer program programmed so as to calculate, as position coordinates, the change in position of the subject on which treatment is to be carried out, according to the respiration amount measured by the computed tomography equipment and the each external marker, through a triangulation method and dual polynomial equations, and to transmit the position coordinates, which changes in real time, to radiation therapy equipment, wherein radiation is emitted by the respiratory gating system, and there is an effect of further increasing the accuracy and stability of the entire radiation therapy result by tracking, in real time, the movement of an organ, which is the subject on which treatment is to be carried out according to breathing, through a respiratory gating system which uses natural breathing rather than a breathing method through the training of the patient.

Particle radiation therapy and planning utilizing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data. Radiation therapy prescription information and patient MRI data can be received and a radiation therapy treatment plan can be determined for use with a particle beam. The treatment plan can utilize the radiation therapy prescription information and the patient MRI data to account for interaction properties of soft tissues in the patient through which the particle beam passes. Patient MRI data may be received from a magnetic resonance imaging system integrated with the particle radiation therapy system. MRI data acquired during treatment may also be utilized to modify or optimize the particle radiation therapy treatment.

Systems and methods for implementing an adaptive therapy workflow that minimizes time needed to create a session patient model, select an appropriate plan for the treatment session, and treat the patient.