Patent ID: 7953205

Claim:
An X-ray apparatus as part of a particle beam cancer therapy system, said particle beam cancer therapy system configured to irradiate a tumor of a patient with a charged particle beam, said apparatus comprising: a respiration sensor configured to generate a respiration signal, said respiration signal corresponding to a respiration cycle of the patient; an X-ray generation source located within about forty millimeters of the charged particle beam, wherein said X-ray source maintains a single static position: (1) during use of said X-ray source and (2) during tumor treatment with the charged particle beam, said apparatus controlled to yield X-ray images at a set point of the respiration cycle by said respiration signal, a rotatable platform holding the patient, wherein said rotatable platform rotates through at least one hundred eighty degrees during an irradiation period of the patient, and wherein said X-ray generation source is timed using said respiration signal to produce X-ray images at a set point in the respiration cycle, wherein X-rays emitted from said X-ray source run substantially in parallel with the charged particle beam, wherein said X-ray images represent greater than ten rotation positions of said rotatable platform, wherein the X-ray images combine to form a 3-dimensional image of the tumor, and wherein said delivery of the charged particle beam at said set point of said respiration cycle occurs in greater than twenty rotation positions of said rotatable platform, wherein ingress energy of said charged particle beam is circumferentially distributed about the tumor.