Patent ID: 7899517

Claim:
A real time radiation treatment planning system for use in effecting radiation therapy of a pre-selected anatomical portion of an animal body, comprising: an imaging device configured to generate image data corresponding to the anatomical portion; a stepper configured to automatically position said imaging device; a template; at least one of a plurality of hollow needles configured for insertion, under guidance of the template, into said anatomical portion; a radiation delivery device configured to define a plurality of positions having a spatial relationship within a volume of said anatomical portion and to insert at least one energy emitting source through said at least one of the plurality of hollow needles at said plurality of positions into said anatomical portion; a processor configured to generate a radiation treatment plan for effecting said radiation therapy including generating information concerning: the number, position, direction and estimation of a placement of said at least one of a plurality of hollow needles within a shape and volume of said anatomical portion to be treated; the amount of radiation dose to be emitted; wherein said processor uses a three-dimensional imaging algorithm and a three-dimensional image segmentation algorithm for one or more specific organs within said anatomical portion and the plurality of said hollow needles for converting the image data obtained with said imaging device into a three-dimensional image of the anatomical portion to determine in real time a number and position of at least one of said hollow needles, a position of said at least one energy emitting source within the at least one of said hollow needles, and a dwell time of said at least one energy emitting source at the position; wherein said processor is configured to generate a set of multiple sampling points and to use a gradient-based algorithm to calculate a radiation dose distribution for each of said sampling points, wherein a number of operations for calculation of brachytherapy objective functions is independent of the number of sampling points in the anatomical portion of the animal body, and wherein, for post planning purposes, said processor is configured to determine, based on three-dimensional image information in real time, the real needle positions and the dwell times of said energy emitting source for each position and, wherein for generating each treatment plan said processor is configured to generate the set of multiple sampling points using said three-dimensional imaging algorithm and said three-dimensional image segmentation algorithm and to calculate the radiation dose distribution for each of said sampling points by using the gradient-based algorithm; and wherein the number of operations for the calculation of the objective functions is independent of the number of sampling points.