Patent ID: 8781558

Claim:
A radiation dose targeting system, comprising a controller, a ventilator configured to provide a plurality of mechanical respiratory cycles to a patient, an imaging system configured to capture images of a target structure in the patient throughout at least one of the mechanical respiratory cycles provided by the ventilator, an image guided radiation therapy (IGRT) unit, wherein the ventilator and IGRT are configured to bi-directionally communicate during a planning stage and a treatment stage in order to treat the target structure in the patient, wherein: during the planning stage, using acquired images from the imaging system as feedback, algorithms in the IGRT are configured to determine an optimal position of the target structure via the ventilator such that the target structure is within a radiation treatment field of the IGRT field and such that a lung volume provided by the ventilator reduces the amount of healthy tissue from unnecessary exposure to the radiation treatment field, and the IGRT is configured to output a set of time data which correlates to a phase in time of at least one mechanical respiratory cycle that reflects an optimal position of the target structure, and during the treatment stage, the ventilator is configured to initiate a mechanical respiratory cycle to reach the phase in time that reflects the optimal position of the target structure, the controller is configured to initiate breath hold when the optimal position of the target structure is reached, the IGRT is configured to treat the target structure during the breath hold, the IGRT is further configured to output three-dimensional position data of the target-structure during the breath hold and three-dimensional position data of the patient during the breath hold to the controller, and the controller is further configured to make real-time error adjustments to the ventilator based on the three-dimensional position data outputted from the IGRT in order to maintain the optimal position of the target structure.