Patent ID: 8251908

Claim:
An image-guided therapy system for applying thermal treatment to a target tissue mass notwithstanding non-periodic relative motion between the target tissue mass and a thermal treatment device, the system comprising: a thermal treatment device configured for transmitting a therapeutic energy beam; an imaging device configured for acquiring images of the target tissue mass and the thermal treatment device; a processor configured for tracking respective positions of the thermal treatment device and the target tissue mass in a common coordinate system based on the acquired images of the target tissue mass and the thermal treatment device, and indirectly tracking a focus position based on (i) the respective positions of the thermal treatment device and the target tissue and (ii) a correlation between the focus position and the position of the treatment device; and a controller configured for controlling the thermal treatment device to focus the energy beam on the target tissue mass, at a distance from the thermal treatment device, the controller being responsive to the processor so as to automatically maintain the focus of the energy beam on the target tissue mass notwithstanding the non-periodic relative motion.