Patent Number: 
Section: claims

1. A computer product comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium storing a plurality of instructions that when executed control a computer system to allow interactive manipulation of dose distribution of a radiation treatment plan using an external-beam radiation treatment system, the instructions comprising:obtaining, by the computer system, an initial radiation treatment plan, the initial radiation treatment plan producing an initial dose distribution that satisfies a plurality of clinical goals, wherein the plurality of clinical goals are expressed in terms of a plurality of initial threshold values for a plurality of quality indexes, each respective quality index relating to a respective statistical quantity of the initial dose distribution;converting, by the computer system, the plurality of clinical goals into a plurality of constraints relating to the plurality of quality indexes, each constraint having a respective initial reference value corresponding to the initial threshold value of the respective quality index, each respective constraint having a corresponding priority indicating relative importance of the respective constraint among the plurality of constraints;providing a user interface to a user, the user interface allowing the user to change an initial reference value to a new reference value for one of the plurality of constraints; andperforming, by the computer system, re-optimization of the initial radiation treatment plan to obtain an updated radiation treatment plan using the new reference value for the one of the plurality of constraints, the updated radiation treatment plan producing an updated dose distribution, wherein the re-optimization enforces the updated dose distribution to satisfy any constraint that has a priority higher than a priority of the one of the plurality of constraints while allowing any constraint that has a priority lower than the priority of the one of the plurality of constraints to be violated. 2. The computer product of claim 1, wherein the updated radiation treatment plan includes a control-point sequence and a multileaf collimator (MLC) leaf sequence to be used by the external-beam radiation treatment system for delivering radiation to a patient. 3. The computer product of claim 2, wherein the instructions further comprise:transmitting the updated radiation treatment plan to control circuitry of the external-beam radiation treatment system to cause the external-beam radiation treatment system to deliver the radiation to the patient according to the control-point sequence and the multileaf collimator (MLC) leaf sequence of the updated radiation treatment plan. 4. The computer product of claim 1, wherein the updated dose distribution satisfies the one of the plurality of constraints having the new reference value. 5. The computer product of claim 1, wherein the updated dose distribution minimizes an amount of violation of each constraint that is violated. 6. The computer product of claim 5, wherein the updated dose distribution corresponds to an achieved reference value for each constraint that is violated, and the instructions further comprise replacing the initial reference value of each constraint that is violated with the achieved reference value. 7. The computer product of claim 1, wherein another one of the plurality of constraints has a same priority as the one of the plurality of constraints, and wherein the updated dose distribution satisfies the another one of the plurality of constraints. 8. The computer product of claim 1, wherein another one of the plurality of constraints has a same priority as the one of the plurality of constraints, and wherein the updated dose distribution is allowed to violate the another one of the plurality of constraints. 9. The computer product of claim 1, wherein the instructions further comprise:allowing the user to, at the user interface, create a new constraint corresponding to a new quality index; andperforming, by the computer system, re-optimization of the updated radiation treatment plan to obtain a second updated radiation treatment plan using the new constraint. 10. The computer product of claim 1, wherein the instructions further comprise:allowing the user to, at the user interface, change priorities of one or more of the plurality of constraints; andperforming, by the computer system, re-optimization of the updated radiation treatment plan to obtain a second updated radiation treatment plan, the second updated radiation treatment plan produces a second updated dose distribution that satisfies as many constraints of higher priorities as possible. 11. A computer product comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium storing a plurality of instructions that when executed control a computer system to determine a radiation treatment plan for delivering radiation to a patient using an external-beam radiation treatment system, the instructions comprising:receiving, via a user interface of the computer system, a first clinical goal and a second clinical goal, wherein the first clinical goal includes a first acceptable threshold value and a first desired threshold value for a first quality index relating to a first statistical quantity of a dose distribution, and the second clinical goal includes a second acceptable threshold value and a second desired threshold value for a second quality index relating to a second statistical quantity of the dose distribution;obtaining, by the computer system, a cost function including a first term with a first weight and a second term with a second weight, wherein the first term is proportional to a value of the first quality index in excess of the first acceptable threshold value, and the second term is proportional to a value of the second quality index in excess of the second acceptable threshold value, and wherein the first weight is inversely proportional to a difference between the first desired threshold value and the first acceptable threshold value, and the second weight is inversely proportional to a difference between the second desired threshold value and the second acceptable threshold value; andperforming, by the computer system, optimization using the cost function to obtain an optimal radiation treatment plan having an optimal value for the cost function. 12. The computer product of claim 11, wherein the optimal radiation treatment plan includes a control-point sequence and a multileaf collimator (MLC) leaf sequence to be used by the external-beam radiation treatment system for delivering radiation to a patient. 13. The computer product of claim 12, wherein the instructions further comprise:transmitting the optimal radiation treatment plan to control circuitry of the external-beam radiation treatment system to cause the external-beam radiation treatment system to deliver the radiation to the patient according to the control-point sequence and the multileaf collimator (MLC) leaf sequence of the optimal radiation treatment plan. 14. The computer product of claim 11, wherein the first term of the cost function is proportional to square of the value of the first quality index in excess of the first acceptable threshold value, and the second term is proportional to square of the value of the second quality index in excess of the second acceptable threshold value. 15. The computer product of claim 14, wherein the first weight is inversely proportional to square of the difference between the first desired threshold value and the first acceptable threshold value, and the second weight is inversely proportional to square of the difference between the second desired threshold value and the second acceptable threshold value. 16. The computer product of claim 11, wherein the difference between the first desired threshold value and the first acceptable threshold value is a clinically insignificant change for the first quality index, and the difference between the second desired threshold value and the second acceptable threshold value is a clinically insignificant change for the second quality index. 17. A computer product comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium storing a plurality of instructions that when executed control a computer system to determine a radiation treatment plan for delivering radiation to a patient using an external-beam radiation treatment system, the instructions comprising:receiving, via a user interface of the computer system, a first clinical goal and a second clinical goal, wherein the first clinical goal includes a first threshold value for a first quality index relating to a first statistical quantity of a dose distribution, and the second clinical goal includes a second threshold value for a second quality index relating to a second statistical quantity of the dose distribution;receiving, by the computer system, a first clinically significant change and a first clinically insignificant change for the first quality index, and a second clinically significant change and a second clinically insignificant change for the second quality index;obtaining, by the computer system, a cost function including a first term, a second term, and a third term, wherein the first term is proportional to a value of the first quality index in excess of the first threshold value and proportional to a value of the second quality index in excess of the second threshold value, the second term relates to the first clinically insignificant change for the first quality index and to the second clinically significant change for the second quality index, and the third term relates to the first clinically significant change for the first quality index and to the second clinically insignificant change for the second quality index; andperforming, by the computer system, optimization using the cost function to obtain an optimal radiation treatment plan having an optimal value for the cost function. 18. The computer product of claim 17, wherein the optimal radiation treatment plan includes a control-point sequence and a multileaf collimator (MLC) leaf sequence to be used by the external-beam radiation treatment system for delivering radiation to a patient. 19. The computer product of claim 17, wherein:the second term of the cost function is proportional to a product of the first clinically insignificant change and the value of the first quality index, and proportional to a product of the second clinically significant change and the value of the second quality index; andthe third term of the cost function is proportional to a product of the first clinically significant change and the value of the first quality index, and proportional to a product of the second clinically insignificant change and the value of the second quality index. 20. The computer product of claim 17, wherein the first clinically significant change and the first clinically insignificant change for the first quality index, and the second clinically significant change and the second clinically insignificant change for the second quality index are determined based on a selected set of existing radiation treatment plans.