Patent ID: 8874187

Claim:
A method of dynamically tracking one or more targets within an anatomical region and delivering therapeutic radiation to the one or more targets, while the anatomical region undergoes a periodic motion characterized by a motion cycle P, the anatomical region comprising one or more internal anatomical reference structures, the method comprising: monitoring, based on one or more surface markers configured for attachment to an external surface of the anatomical region, the periodic motion to measure the cycle P; generating near real time images of the one or more targets and the one or more internal anatomical reference structures within the moving anatomical region; determining, in real time, locations, within the moving anatomical region, of the one or more targets relative to the one or more internal anatomical reference structures based on a) registering the near real time images to one or more digitally reconstructed radiographs (DRRs) generated from pre-operative images in which the one or more internal anatomical reference structures were identified and b) applying an outcome of the registration to a 4D mathematical model that describes a non-rigid deformation of the anatomical region, as a function of time within the cycle P, and which describes a 3D motion of the one or more targets relative to the one or more internal anatomical reference structures as a function of the time within the cycle P; and delivering, based on the determined locations, the therapeutic radiation in real time to the one or more targets as the anatomical region undergoes the periodic motion.