Patent ID: 7729744

Claim:
A method for improved spatial localization of a patient's lesion for the purpose of administering radiation treatment, the method comprising the steps of: (a) obtaining a plurality of beam shape representations, each along a direction of a corresponding beam of a treatment device; (b) constructing a three-dimensional intersection volume from the plurality of beam shape representations; (c) obtaining a plurality of images corresponding to the lesion from each of the directions of the beams of the treatment device; (d) constructing a three-dimensional lesion image from the plurality of images; (e) fixing the three-dimensional intersection volume and the three-dimensional tumor image to a common coordinate system in order to facilitate volumetric alignment therebetween; (f) constructing a three-dimensional image comprising the three-dimensional lesion image and the three-dimensional intersection volume based on the common coordinate system; and (g) obtaining a plurality of cross-sectional reconstructions of the three-dimensional image, each cross-sectional reconstruction comprising a two-dimensional representation of the lesion and of the intersection volume.