The invention comprises a method and apparatus for tracking and/or imaging impact of a particle beam treating a tumor using one or more imaging systems positionable about the tumor, such as a positron emission tracking and/or imaging system, where resulting tracking/imaging data: dynamically determines a treatment beam position, tracks a history of treatment beam positions, guides the treatment beam, and/or images a tumor before, during, and/or after treatment with the charged particle beam.

Disclosed is a computer-implemented method for determining a position of an anatomical tracking structure in a tracking image usable for controlling a radiation treatment such as at least one of radiotherapy or radio surgery of a patient, a corresponding computer program, a non-transitory program storage medium storing such a program and a computer for executing the program, as well as a system for the position of an anatomical tracking structure in a tracking image usable for controlling a radiation treatment such as at least one of radiotherapy or radio surgery of a patient, a system comprising an electronic data storage device and the aforementioned computer.

Methods and systems are disclosed for radiating a moving object. The method may comprise acquiring a plurality of indicators of the phase of a physiological cycle of a patient and a plurality of images of the patient that include a target. Each image may be taken at a different phase of the physiological cycle and may be registered to the phase at which the image was taken. The method may also include identifying the target in each of the plurality of images, calculating a dose of radiation required to treat the target, calculating the number, orientation, and dwell time of one or more radiation beams required to deliver the calculated required dose of radiation to the target, and calculating a position of each of the one or more radiation beams required to achieve the calculated orientation. Each position may be a function of the phase of the physiological cycle to which each of the plurality of images is registered.

It is provided a method for providing a treatment plan for radiotherapy when the delivery is interrupted, the method being performed by a treatment planning system. The method comprises the steps of: detecting that delivery of a first treatment plan has been interrupted; obtaining an indication of delivery of a partial dose, representing the part of the first treatment plan that was delivered prior to the interruption; generating a second treatment plan, wherein the partial dose delivery forms an input to the second treatment plan generation as a background dose; and optimizing the second treatment plan while considering a plurality of scenarios.

Systems and method for automatically generating structures, such as target volumes, in a treatment image using structure-guided deformation to propagate the structures from a planning image onto the subsequently acquired treatment image.

Disclosed herein is a method of positioning a patient for radiotherapy treatment using a radiotherapy system. The method comprises determining a first target position for the patient for radiotherapy treatment; implementing a spatial relationship between the patient and at least a part of the radiotherapy device, at a first time (t.sub.1), according to the first target position; providing radiotherapy treatment to the patient; determining a current position of the patient, at a second, subsequent time (t.sub.2); and determining whether a change of a spatial relationship between the patient and at least a part of the radiotherapy device should be made, according to the first target position.

A method and apparatus for treatment planning using four dimensional imaging data.

Systems and techniques may be used to estimate a patient state during a radiotherapy treatment. For example, a method may include generating a dictionary of expanded potential patient measurements and corresponding potential patient states using a preliminary motion model. The method may include training, using a machine learning technique, a correspondence motion model relating an input patient measurement to an output patient state using the dictionary. The method may include estimating, using a processor, the patient state corresponding to an input image using the correspondence motion model.

A method of operating imaging and tracking. The method includes determining, for each angle of a plurality of angles from which tracking images can be generated by an imaging device, a value of a tracking quality metric for tracking a target based on an analysis of a projection generated at that angle. The method also includes selecting, by a processing device, a subset of the plurality of angles that have a tracking quality metric value that satisfies a tracking quality metric criterion, one or more angles of the subset to be used to generate a tracking image of the target during a treatment stage, wherein the subset comprises at least a first angle and a second angle that is at least separated by a minimum threshold from the first angle.

Systems and method for generating and executing volumetric modulated arc therapy (“VMAT”) plans are provided. In some aspects, the method includes receiving a representation of a subject comprising information related to target and non-target volumes of interest, and generating an objective function based on the representation of the subject, wherein the objective function accounts for dynamic collimator rotation. The method also includes performing an iterative optimization process, using the objective function, to generate a dynamic collimator VMAT plan, and generating a report in accordance with the dynamic collimator VMAT plan.