Patent ID: 7778691
Filing Date: 2010-08-17
Classification: A61B,A61N

Abstract:
1. A treatment planning system for treatment of tumors within an organ during periodic organ motion using a radiation therapy machine of a type providing intensity modulated beamlets along a plurality of rays at a plurality of angles about a patient, the planning system comprising: a solid finite element model describing positions of tissue elements throughout a volume of an organ at multiple ones of a plurality of phases of organ motion; and a treatment plan calculator: (i) receiving a dose map corresponding to a first phase of organ motion describing a desired dose of the organ throughout the volume of the organ; (ii) relating the dose map to the other phases of organ motion according to the model of the organ; (iii) determining from the solid finite element model an intensity value for each of the beamlets using the dose map as distorted for each of the tissue element of the organ at each phase of organ motion; the intensity values taking on a plurality of values ranging between full and zero intensity so that a desired dose is deposited on the tumor and the organ outside the tumor being a summation of the overlapping beamlets along the plurality of rays at the plurality of angles; (iv) outputting a treatment plan for the plurality of angles for treatment of a patient wherein the intensity values of the beamlets are a function of the positions of the tissue elements for each of the phases of organ motion, the completed treatment plan formatted for receipt by a radiation therapy machine, the latter using a signal indicating organ motion to read the treatment plan and dynamically change the intensity values of the beamlets per the treatment plan as a function of the signal; further including a model generator including: (i) a storage means holding an image of the organ at a first phase of organ motion and a displacement map of the organ at a second phase of organ motion; and (ii) deforming means warping the organ image using the displacement map.