New techniques for controlling electromagnetic and other forms of radiation are provided. In some aspects of the invention, multiple sources of radiation with characteristics that are projected to constructively interfere at a target are provided. In other aspects, spatially-encoded source signals create a decrypted resulting beam at a planned, target location. In still other aspects, a variable shield which is also a lens is inserted between a radiation target and collateral material.

A shielding apparatus is provided. The shielding apparatus includes: at least one shielding shell segment, the at least one shielding shell segment constituting a shielding chamber, the shielding chamber being arranged on a periphery of a radiation device and shielding radiation generated by the radiation device. The shielding chamber is arranged on the periphery of the radiation device, and the shielding chamber at least partially shields scattering radiation generated by the radiation device, which can thus reduce the requirements of the radiation device for radiation shielding of a dedicated machine room or get rid of the dependence of the radiotherapy device on a dedicated machine room.

A method for treating, preventing and/or reducing neurodegeneration in subjects with neurodegenerative disease, such as those neurodegenerative diseases that affect the eye, including glaucoma, using radiation, such as gamma radiation or X-ray radiation, either alone or together with a bone marrow transfer treatment. The method includes irradiating a targeted area of an animal, such as the eye region, with radiation, either alone or followed by injection with T-cell depleted bone marrow cells. Also a method for screening and/or selecting agents and/or treatment methods for inhibiting, treating and/or reducing neurodegeneration, particularly the neurodegeneration of the eye that occurs as a consequence of glaucoma.

The present disclosure discloses a radiotherapy apparatus incorporating multi-source focusing therapy and conformal and intensity-modulated therapy. The radiotherapy apparatus comprises a base, a movable couch, a gantry, at least one therapeutic head, and a counterweight. The therapeutic head comprises a shielding part, a source carrier received in the shielding part, provided with a focusing radioactive source for focused therapy and a conformal radioactive source for conformal and intensity-modulated radiotherapy, a switch part configured for controlling on/off the source, a shielding door configured for controllably shielding the radiation beams of the radioactive sources; and a collimator assembly. By using this method as disclosed, a problem of that a single current Gamma Knife device cannot implement both accurate multi-source focused therapy and conformal therapy can be solved.

Systems and methods arc disclosed for generating radio-therapy treatment machine parameters based on projection images of a target anatomy. The systems and methods include receiving an image depicting an anatomy of a subject: generating a first projection image based on the received image that represents a view of the anatomy from a first gantry angle of tire radiotherapy treatment machine; applying a machine learning model to the first projection image to estimate a first graphical aperture image representation of multi-leaf collimator (MLC) leaf positions at the first gantry angle and the radiation intensity at that angle, the machine learning model being trained to establish a relationship between projection images representing different views of a patient anatomy and respective graphical aperture image representations of the MLC leaf positions at different gantry angles corresponding to the different views: and generating radiotherapy treatment machine parameters based on the first graphical aperture image representation.

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 radiotherapy equipment is provided. The radiotherapy equipment comprises at least two radiation apparatuses, the radiation apparatuses are configured to be capable of emitting radiation beams, the radiation beams emitted by at least two of the radiation apparatuses intersect at an intersection point, the radiation apparatuses are rotatable circumferentially about a rotation axis, and radiation positions of at least two of the radiation apparatuses are positioned at different cross-sections with respect to the rotation axis.

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 X-ray system for providing a converging X-rays comprises: (a) an X-ray source having an optical axis thereof; and an X-ray lens comprising at least one ring having a Bragg reflecting surface formed by a plurality of single-crystal tiles. Each tile individually comprises an adjusting arrangement enabling a tridimensional individual displacement thereof in angular and translational manner.

Described herein are methods for reducing or maintaining the size of a tumor in a subject, where the method involves exposing the tumor to ionizing radiation and administering to the subject a modified hyaluronan or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt or ester. The use of the modified hyaluronan enhances or potentiates the effect of ionizing radiation used in cancer treatment. Additionally, the methods described herein prevent or reduces tumor regrowth in the subject after exposing the tumor to ionizing radiation and administration of the modified hyaluronan to the subject.