Disclosed herein are systems and methods for rapidly delivering high doses of radiation, also known as, flash dose radiotherapy or flash radiotherapy. One variation of a system for flash radiotherapy has a plurality of therapeutic radiation sources on a support structure (e.g., a gantry or arm) and configured to toward a patient target region, and a controller in communication with all of the therapeutic radiation sources. The controller is configured to activate the plurality of therapeutic radiation sources simultaneously so that the patient target region rapidly receives a high dose of radiation, e.g. the entire prescribed dose of radiation. In some variations, a flash radiotherapy system has a pulsed, high-power source that may be used to generate an X-ray pulse that delivers a dose having a dose rate from about 7.5 Gy/s to about 70 Gy/s. Flash radiotherapy systems may also include one or more imaging systems mounted on the support structure.

A device may include a collimator positioned between a radiation source of a scanner and a bore of the scanner. The bore may include a detecting region configured to accommodate a subject. The collimator may be configured to prevent at least one portion of radiation rays emitted from the radiation source from being incident on the subject. The device may further include a first filter and a second filter. The first filter may be positioned between the radiation source and the collimator. The second filter may be positioned between the collimator and the bore. The first filter and the second filter may be configured to adjust a distribution of radiation impinging upon the subject.

An electromagnetic wave treatment apparatus for treating, inhibiting, or preventing an inflammatory disease of an object, an operating method thereof, and a method for treating, inhibiting, or preventing an inflammatory disease of an object using the same is provided. An electromagnetic wave for treating, inhibiting, or preventing an inflammatory disease of an object and a use thereof, and a method including irradiating the electromagnetic wave onto the object is provided.

After accessing optimization information for a particular patient and for a particular radiation treatment platform, a control circuit generates an optimized radiation treatment plan by processing the optimization information using direct-aperture-optimization that includes fluence-based sub-optimization. By one approach, the control circuit includes the fluence-based sub-optimization in at least some, but not necessarily all, iterations of the direct-aperture-optimization. By one approach, the control circuit is configured to include only a few iterations of the fluence-based sub-optimization when including the fluence-based sub-optimization in at least some, but not necessarily all, iterations of the direct-aperture-optimization.

Embodiments are directed generally to an ionizing-radiation beamline monitoring system that includes a vacuum chamber structure with vacuum compatible flanges through which an incident ionizing-radiation beam enters the monitoring system. Embodiments further include at least one scintillator within the vacuum chamber structure that can be at least partially translated in the ionizing-radiation beam while oriented at an angle greater than 10 degrees to a normal of the incident ionizing-radiation beam, a machine vision camera coupled to a light-tight structure at atmospheric/ambient pressure that is attached to the vacuum chamber structure by a flange attached to a vacuum-tight viewport window with the camera and lens optical axis oriented at an angle of less than 80 degrees with respect to a normal of the scintillator, and at least one ultraviolet (“UV”) illumination source facing the scintillator in the ionizing-radiation beam for monitoring a scintillator stability comprising scintillator radiation damage.

Systems and methods for using electronic portal imaging devices (EPIDs) as absolute radiation beam measuring devices and as radiation beam alignment devices without implementation of elaborate and complex calibration procedures.

Device including a multileaf collimator, the multileaf collimator including an array of leaves and slits, the array having an alternation of leaves and slits and extending in a longitudinal direction, the longitudinal direction being defined as a direction extending from an entrance plane of the array toward an exit plane of the array, each leaf being located between two slits; the device having a source for emitting an incident electromagnetic beam or a source for emitting an incident beam of subatomic particles, the source being arranged to emit the beam in the direction of the entrance plane of the array, the multileaf collimator being arranged to obtain an arrangement of beams from the incident beam, and the arrangement of beams forms an alternation of high-energy lines and lower-energy lines.

An image-guided therapy delivery system includes a therapy generator configured to generate a therapy beam directed to a time-varying therapy locus within a therapy recipient, an imaging input configured to receive imaging information about a time-varying target locus within the therapy recipient, and a therapy controller. The therapy generator includes a therapy output configured to direct the therapy beam according to a therapy protocol. The therapy controller is configured to automatically generate a predicted target locus using information indicative of an earlier target locus extracted from the imaging information, a cyclic motion model, and a specified latency, and automatically generate an updated therapy protocol to align the time-varying therapy locus with the predicted target locus.

A control circuit utilizes patient information and treatment-platform information to optimize a radiation-treatment plan by permitting isocenters of various radiation-treatment fields as comprise parts of a same treatment plan to not be coincidental with one another to thereby yield an optimized treatment plan. The patient information can pertain to one or more physical aspects of the patient as desired. By one approach, the foregoing can comprise scattering the isocenters of the various radiation-treatment fields around a predetermined point (such as, for example, the center of the treatment volume and/or some or all of the beams). This approach can comprise causing an area of highest energy flux for a given field to be non-coincident for at least some of the radiation-treatment fields as are specified by the radiation-treatment plan.

A method is for changing a spatial intensity distribution of an x-ray beam. In an embodiment, the method includes generating an x-ray beam by an x-ray source; guiding a beam path of the x-ray beam through a form filter with a plurality of lamellas, the form filter including a holder apparatus and the plurality of lamellas being arranged in the holder apparatus such that each lamella has at least one straight line running through the respective lamella in parallel to the further lamellas. The method further includes aligning the plurality of lamellas relative to the beam path by controlled movement of at least one part of the plurality of lamellas relative to one another and thereby changing the spatial intensity distribution of the x-ray beam. An apparatus, configured to carry out such a method, an irradiation arrangement and a medical imaging apparatus are further disclosed.