Patent ID: 6530873
Filing Date: 2003-03-11
Classification: A61N

Abstract:
A method for planning the placement of seeds for a brachytherapy treatment of diseased tissue, the method comprising the steps of:representing a placement or non-placement of a seed in each point of a predetermined three dimensional grid of potential seed locations with a binary indicator variable; representing a tumor and surrounding tissue as a predetermined three dimensional tissue grid having a plurality of tissue points; associating at least one of an upper bound and a lower bound for a dose of radiation received with each point in the tissue grid; calculating an objective value based on a difference at each point of the tissue grid between an amount of radiation based on a trial placement of seeds and the at least one of the upper bound and the lower bound; varying the trial placement of seeds and repeating the step of calculating the objective value, resulting in additional objective values; selecting an optimal objective value from the calculated objective value and the additional objective values; and setting a planned placement of seeds based on the trial placement of seeds that obtains the optimal objective value.