Patent ID: 7391026

Claim:
A planning tool for interactive selection of control variables of a radiation therapy plan from a database ( 1 ) having a plurality of previously calculated or predetermined solutions, whereby each solution (i) represents a radiation therapy plan comprising a plurality of control variables or commands, adapted to be sent to a radiation therapy device or to be made available to this therapy device, at a point in time prior to applying the control variables or commands as part of a performing the therapy; and (ii) contains characteristic values of radiation doses for a target volume (T) and at least one risk volume stored in the database ( 1 ); and whereby (a) several axes are one of plotted and visually displayed on a display device, said several axes provided as radiation dose scales for the target volume (T) and the at least one risk volume, representing at least one risk axis and one target axis, whereby no axis, coincides with another axis and adjacent axes do not extend in parallel; (b) the characteristic values of the radiation doses for at least a plurality of the stored solutions are assigned to the particular axes respectively thereby obtaining an acceptance interval for each risk axis and the target axis ( 30 ), the acceptance intervals jointly defining a planning zone for all axes; and (c) the planning zone on the display device ( 3 ) is one of emphasized with respect to an environment and displayed in a visual manner with respect to the environment outside the planning zone.