Patent ID: 7166852

Claim:
A system for determining the location of a treatment target in a treatment area within a patient's anatomy to allow alignment of the treatment target with the iso-center of a therapeutic radiation treatment device, said system comprising: means for generating laser beams, which are directed to and intersect at an intersection point, wherein the location of said intersection point with respect to the iso-center of the therapeutic radiation treatment device is determinable; a localizing system comprising: a). a movable reference object comprising a distal tip; b). a localizer comprising at least one detector and a computer system for detecting and determining the position of said moveable reference object in a treatment coordinate system when said moveable reference object is positioned at a series of positions, wherein the position of the distal tip of the movable reference object with respect to a geometry of said reference object is loaded in the computer system of said localizer, wherein said computer system of said localizer is adapted to determine the position of the distal tip in said treatment coordinate system based on the position of said movable reference object and the position of said distal tip with respect to the geometry of said reference object; and wherein said movable reference object is adapted to be positioned at a series of predefined points on said patient body to determine the position of said series of points in said treatment coordinate system by said localizer, wherein said series of predefined points on said patient body are obtained in a pre-treatment process, said predefined points representative of intersection points of said laser beams with an exterior of the patient's body when said treatment target in said treatment area is positioned coincident with said intersection point of said laser beams, and wherein said computer system of said localizer is programmed with a software for determining the position of said treatment target in said treatment coordinate system based on the position information of said series of said predefined points on said patient body received from said localizing system.