Patent ID: 8395131

Claim:
A method for delivering radiation to a tumor in a three-dimensional (3D) dose lattice formation using heavy charged particle beams, comprising: locating a tumor and determining its type, shape, and volume; determining if the tumor is clinically indicated for 3D lattice radiation treatment; generating a three-dimensional (3D) dose lattice formation plan by the following algorithm: delineating and defining the tumor volume by a 3D boundary designated V; determining the desired maximum dose of the lattice D max ; determining the desired minimum dose between dose vertices D min ; determining the desired dose outside the tumor volume D exm ; setting a variable n as an estimated number of vertices based on the tumor shape and volume; designating each dose vertex as i such that the i th vertex is located at a position r i in the 3D lattice; representing the location of the dose vertices by a vector set R L (r 1 , r 2 , r 3 , r 4 , . . . r n )εV; constructing a Bragg-Peak dose distribution associated with vertex i by D i (r); deriving a composite dose distribution using the equation D ⁡ ( r ) = ∑ i = 1 n ⁢ w i ⁢ D i ⁡ ( r ) , where w i is the weighting factor for the i th vertex, which forms a scalar set w L (w 1 , w 2 , . . . , w n ); starting iteration to search R L , (r 1 , r 2 , r 3 , r 4 , . . . r n )εV and w L until: 1 ) ⁢ ⁢ ∑ i ⁢ [ D ⁡ ( r i ⁡ ( σ ) ) - D max ] 2 ≤ δ max , and ⁢ ⁢ 2 ) ⁢ ⁢ ∑ i , j ⁢ [ D ⁡ ( r i , j ) min - D min ] 2 ≤ δ min , and ⁢ ⁢ 3 ) ⁢ ⁢ D ⁡ ( r ∉ V ) ≤ D exm , where σ is a predefined range from the center of vertex, within which the maximum dose, D max , should fall; and r i (σ) denotes the vector which displacement from r i is equal to or less than σ; and δ max is a predefined objective threshold for the fitness of D max ; and δ min is a predefined objective threshold for the fitness of D min ; and D(r ij ) min is a minimum dose along the vector r ij =r i −r j , (i≠j); ending iteration; and using resulting vertex positions (r 1 , r 2 , r 3 , r 4 , . . . r m ), where m need not equal n, and w L (w 1 , w 2 , . . . w n ) to deliver the dose lattice with a radiation delivery system.