Patent Document ID: 20020016695
Application ID: 09872118
Patent Flag: 0

Claim One:
1. A method for determining a planning volume of a sarcoma, comprising of the steps of: inserting catheters into the sarcoma; obtaining coordinates for the catheters, where the catheters comprise centers in cross-sectional slices of the sarcoma; determining a span of the sarcoma between the furthest centers of the coordinates; selecting a radius r about the centers, where r defines circles about the centers; designating an order to the circles and labeling the centers on the cross-sectional slices; identifying tangent points along the circles in triplets of circles, and identifying corresponding tangent lines for the circles in triplets of circles; determining distances between each circle in the triplets of circles, relative to the other two circles of the triplet of circles; determining whether a middle circle in a triplet of circles should be included in interpolation to determine the planning volume; using local interpolation to construct an inner and outer curve, the inner and outer curves cumulatively defining the planning volume for each individual cross-sectional slice of a sarcoma; and outputting coordinates and graphics which define the planning volume for the sarcoma.