Recent Patents on Radiotherapy Bed and Radiotherapy Chair
Authors: Zhang Yongde , Gao Lingyu 
Published: May 2024

Radiation therapy beds and radiation therapy chairs play an important role in the field of
radiation therapy. Applying them to the process of proton heavy ion radiation therapy not only improves
the efficiency and accuracy of the procedure, but also reduces the pressure on doctors. Before
radiotherapy, the relative positions of human tissues and tumors are obtained through CT scanning
and professional software is used to reconstruct them in 3 D reconstruction and carry out preoperative
treatment planning, planning the points of each posture for accelerator irradiation. During the
treatment process, the patient lies on the treatment bed, and the radiation port of the treatment head is
aimed at the lesion area of the patient, and the treatment is realized by irradiating the lesion area with
rays. However, since the patient's position during treatment is not consistent with the position during
CT filming, it is necessary to accurately adjust the patient's position by means of the radiation therapy
beds or chairs, so that it is as consistent as possible with the position during CT filming, monitoring
the patient's position in real time during the treatment. When the patient's position deviates more
than a certain value in six degrees of freedom from the position in which the CT was taken, the radiation
therapy beds or chairs are driven to adjust the patient's position to achieve precise radiotherapy.
Currently, conventional radiation therapy beds and chairs are limited by a certain degree of spatial
freedom in achieving the above characteristics, and the positioning accuracy is generally not high,
which affects the realization of precise radiotherapy. Radiation therapy beds and chairs are subjected
to eccentric loads in the working process, which leads to an increase in the force of each rod, so the
stiffness and strength of the parts need to be strengthened in the limit cases, and the parameters of the
multi-objective coordination mechanism need to be optimized. The function of the radiotherapy chair
with head and neck fixation device is not perfect, and the coordination control system of the posture
adjustment mechanism and head and neck fixation device is not intelligent enough. In the clinical
process, if the patient suddenly moves (e.g. epilepsy, shock) due to other conditions, there is a lack
of devices to protect the patient. The research progress of radiation therapy beds and radiation therapy
chairs is reviewed, and their respective characteristics and developments are described. This paper
provides an review of various representative patents for radiation therapy beds and radiation therapy
chairs. In this study, the patents we have selected are representative or have a clear advantage in one
way or another. The application scenarios, structural characteristics, ease of maintenance, accuracy
and other aspects were analyzed and compared. By investigating various patents and the main current
existing problems on the different radiotherapy beds and chairs, such as fixed radiotherapy beds,
parallel radiotherapy beds, serial radiotherapy beds and radiotherapy chairs are summarized and analyzed.
Furthermore, the development trend of radiotherapy beds and chairs have also been discussed.
Radiotherapy beds and chairs are all-important components of the radiotherapy systems and determine
the efficacy of radiotherapy. Its accuracy, comfortableness, dexterity and robustness of effect
need to be further improved. For some time to come, patents on radiotherapy chairs and beds need
more attention.