Disclosed herein are methods for determining the location of a moving target region (e.g., a tumor) based on the location of the center of its range of motion and the location of a target region surrogate, during a radiotherapy treatment session or a quality assurance (QA) session. These methods comprise characterizing the motion range of the target region, calculating the location of the center of the motion range, and determining a correlation between the position of the target region surrogate and the displacement of the target region from the center of the motion range as the target region moves.

According to one embodiment, a radiotherapy planning apparatus includes processing circuitry. The processing circuitry calculates initial irradiation directions of particle beams and an initial dose distribution corresponding to the initial irradiation directions by using a three-dimensional medical image concerning an object. The processing circuitry disperses some or all of the initial irradiation directions in response to a dispersion instruction via an input device. The processing circuitry modifies the initial dose distribution based on the dispersed irradiation directions.

Systems and methods for determining an ROI of a subject are provided. In some embodiments, the system may obtain a target image including the subject situated on a table. The system may also obtain a focus position associated with the ROI of the subject to be scanned or treated by a medical device in the target image. The system may further determine a target table position based on the focus position. In some embodiments, the system may obtain a model image corresponding to the subject. The system may also obtain a virtual area corresponding to a virtual ROI in the model image. The system may also obtain a positioning image of the subject. The system may further determine, in the positioning image, a target area corresponding to the ROI of the subject corresponding to the virtual ROI based on the virtual area and the positioning image.

Disclosed herein are methods for radiotherapy treatment plan optimization for irradiating one or more target regions using both an internal therapeutic radiation source (ITRS) and an external therapeutic radiation source (ETRS). One variation of a method comprises iterating through ITRS radiation dose values and ETRS radiation dose values to attain a cumulative dose that meets prescribed dose requirements. In some variations, an ITRS is an injectable compound that has a targeting backbone and a radionuclide, and images acquired using an imaging compound that has the same targeting backbone as the injectable compound can be used to calculate the radiation dose deliverable using the injectable ITRS, and also to calculate firing filters for delivering radiation using a biologically-guided radiation therapy (BGRT) system. Image data acquired from a previous treatment session may be used to adapt the dose provided by an ITRS and/or ETRS for a future treatment session.

An imaging apparatus comprises a rotatable gantry system positioned at least partially around a patient support; a first source of radiation coupled to the rotatable gantry system, the first source of radiation configured for imaging radiation; a second source of radiation coupled to the rotatable gantry system; and a first radiation detector coupled to the rotatable gantry system and laterally movable relative to a central beam of the first source of radiation to receive radiation from at least the first source of radiation over various fields of view. Alternative configurations of the imaging apparatus and methods of using the imaging apparatus are also provided.

Disclosed herein are systems and methods for guiding the delivery of therapeutic radiation using incomplete or partial images acquired during a treatment session. A partial image does not have enough information to determine the location of a target region due to, for example, poor or low contrast and/or low SNR. The radiation fluence calculation methods described herein do not require knowledge or calculation of the target location, and yet may help to provide real-time image guided radiation therapy using arbitrarily low SNR images.

An adjustable support for a gantry (3) for a radiation therapy apparatus or for a medical imaging apparatus, wherein the support comprises: abase (5), a mounting member (1), and an attachment element (7); wherein a lower part of the mounting member (1) engages with the base (5); wherein the attachment element (7) engages with an upper part of the mounting member (1); and wherein the position of the upper part of the mounting member (1), relative to the base (5) is adjustable by the attachment element (7).

Systems and methods for shuttle mode radiation delivery are described herein. One method for radiation delivery comprises moving the patient platform through the patient treatment region multiple times during a treatment session. This may be referred to as patient platform or couch shuttling (i.e., couch shuttle mode). Another method for radiation delivery comprises moving the therapeutic radiation source jaw across a range of positions during a treatment session. The jaw may move across the same range of positions multiple times during a treatment session. This may be referred to as jaw shuttling (i.e., jaw shuttle mode). Some methods combine couch shuttle mode and jaw shuttle mode. Methods of dynamic or pipelined normalization are also described.

Described herein are methods for beam station delivery of radiation treatment, where the patient platform is moved to a series of discrete patient platform locations or beam stations that are determined during treatment planning, stopped at each of these locations while the radiation source rotates about the patient delivering radiation to the target regions that intersect the radiation beam path, and then moving to the next location after the prescribed dose of radiation (e.g., in accordance with a calculated fluence map) for that location has been delivered to the patient.

An apparatus comprising a radiation source, coincident positron emission detectors configured to detect coincident positron annihilation emissions originating within a coordinate system, and a controller coupled to the radiation source and the coincident positron emission detectors, the controller configured to identify coincident positron annihilation emission paths intersecting one or more volumes in the coordinate system and align the radiation source along an identified coincident positron annihilation emission path.