Proton therapy beam-sharing panel display and controls
Granted: December 3, 2019
Patent Number:
10493300
Systems and methods are described herein to provide a user-interface to visualize and control a beam request panel for requesting allocation of usage of a shared therapy beam. The user interface allows a user to visualize a beam request queue, to request the shared therapy beam for treatment, to estimate when a beam request will be fulfilled, and to cancel a beam request if needed.
Camera systems and methods for use in one or more areas in a medical facility
Granted: December 3, 2019
Patent Number:
10493298
A method of monitoring an object during a medical process includes: using one or more cameras to obtain information regarding an actual three dimensional configuration of an object involved in a medical process; obtaining a three-dimensional model of the object representing a geometry of the object; obtaining a movement model of the object; and processing the information, the three-dimensional model, and the movement model to monitor the object during the medical process, wherein the act…
Image comparison tool tolerant to deformable image matching
Granted: November 26, 2019
Patent Number:
10489678
An apparatus and method for determining an image similarity based on image features. In one aspect, the image similarity determination is based on an image comparison tool. The image comparison tool may be trained, by a machine-learning system, to estimate a similarity between images based on a subset of image data comprised by image features. The estimate may be an estimate of how similar structures found in the images would be following a geometric transformation of some of the…
Method and apparatus pertaining to automated multi-step radiation-treatment plan development
Granted: November 26, 2019
Patent Number:
10489556
A control circuit facilitates providing a user interface to facilitate developing a radiation-treatment plan for a given patient, the user interface comprising, at least in part, an opportunity to select an automated multi-step radiation-treatment plan development capability. Upon detecting a user's selection of this automated multi-step radiation-treatment plan development capability, these teachings then provide for automatically carrying out a plurality of steps wherein at least some…
Compact lightweight high-performance proton therapy beamline
Granted: November 26, 2019
Patent Number:
10485995
A compact lightweight gantry for a proton therapy system that has a source-to-axis distance (SAD) of less than 2 m and can deliver a proton beam of superior quality. The reduced SAD leads to reduced requirements on the maximum magnetic fields that can be generated by the bend magnets in the gantry beamline. Correspondingly, lightweight bend magnets can be used. The various components in the gantry beamline are optimized to achieve a beam spot size of approximately 4 mm sigma or less…
Interactive dose manipulation using prioritized constraints
Granted: November 26, 2019
Patent Number:
10485988
In a method of interactive manipulation of the dose distribution of a radiation treatment plan, after an initial candidate treatment plan has been obtained, a set of clinical goals are transferred into a set of constraints. Each constraint may be expressed in terms of a threshold value for a respective quality index of the dose distribution. The dose distribution can then be modified interactively by modifying the threshold values for the set of constraints. Re-optimization may be…
Dosimetric end-to-end verification devices, systems, and methods
Granted: November 5, 2019
Patent Number:
10463885
Dosimetrical end-to-end quality assurance devices, systems, and methods for radiation devices using X-ray imaging, optical surface imaging, and electromagnetic navigational systems to position the quality assurance device either absolute or relative in space.
Dynamic target masker in radiation treatment of multiple targets
Granted: October 22, 2019
Patent Number:
10449389
A method for determining MLC leaf sequences for radiation treatment includes obtaining BEV projections of a first target volume and a second target volume along one or more treatment paths of a radiation treatment plan, analyzing the BEV projections to determine one or more contiguous ranges of spatial points where there exists an interstitial region between the first target volume and the second target volume in the direction of MLC leaf motion, and determining a first set of MLC leaf…
Method and device for efficiently irradiating a target from multiple irradiation angles in a particle therapy system
Granted: October 22, 2019
Patent Number:
10449394
A control system is described which provides a user interface that displays a clear graphical representation of relevant data for a particle radiation therapy system (such as a pencil-beam proton therapy system) for treating multiple beam fields as efficiently as possible. The user interface allows a user to visualize a treatment session, select one or multiple beam fields to include in one or more beam applications, and dissociate beam fields previously grouped if necessary. Further…
Radiation systems with minimal or no shielding requirement on building
Granted: October 22, 2019
Patent Number:
10449393
A radiation system includes a support, a capsule rotatably coupled to the support, a radiation source movably coupled to the capsule, wherein the radiation source is configured to provide a treatment radiation beam, and is capable of being turned on or off in response to a control signal, and a collimator located next to the radiation source, wherein the capsule defines a space for accommodating a portion of a patient, and includes a shielding material for attenuating radiation resulted…
Method for optimizing a brachytherapy radiation treatment plan
Granted: October 22, 2019
Patent Number:
10449386
A control circuit optimizes a brachytherapy radiation treatment plan for a patient target volume by defining a radiation-control structure that conformally surrounds the patient target volume and then automatically removes part, but not all, of the radiation-control structure to control consideration of radiation sources that are not disposed within the patient target volume. By one approach the control circuit selectively removes parts of the radiation-control structure as a function of…
Clinical goal treatment planning and optimization
Granted: October 15, 2019
Patent Number:
10446265
An apparatus for developing an intensity-modulated radiation therapy treatment plan includes a memory that stores machine instructions and a processor that executes the machine instructions to receive a clinical goal associated with the treatment plan as a user input. The processor further executes the machine instructions to determine a plan objective based on the clinical goal, generate a cost function comprising a term based on the plan objective, and assign an initial value to a…
Imaging devices
Granted: October 15, 2019
Patent Number:
10444378
An imaging device includes: a first scintillator layer; an array of detector elements, wherein the array of detector elements comprises a first detector element; a second scintillator layer, wherein the array of detector elements is located between the first scintillator layer and the second scintillator layer; and a first neutral density filter located between the first scintillator layer and the first detector element and/or a second neutral density filter located between the second…
Method and apparatus to employ a multi-layer multi-leaf collimator when administering a radiation therapy treatment
Granted: October 15, 2019
Patent Number:
10441814
A control circuit administers a radiation treatment plan that specifies a planned total radiation dose for a radiation treatment session for a given patient by modulating a radiation beam with at least one high-resolution aperture that is formed using one of a plurality of linearly-sequential high-resolution aperture possibilities. By one approach the foregoing comprises modulating the radiation beam using at least substantially only high-resolution apertures that are formed using a…
Medical systems with patient supports
Granted: October 15, 2019
Patent Number:
10441226
A radiation system includes a first ring, a radiation source capable of providing radiation suitable for treating a patient, the radiation source secured to the first ring, a second ring located behind the first ring, and an imager secured to the second ring. A radiation system includes a first device having a radiation source capable of generating a radiation beam suitable for treating a patient, and a second device having imaging capability, wherein the first device is oriented at an…
Moving floor for radiotherapy system with cantilever gantry assembly
Granted: October 1, 2019
Patent Number:
10426977
A proton beam therapy system with a cantilever gantry system and a moving floor system. The moving floor system includes a flexible moving floor and a track that is disposed vertically and affixed to an external wall. The track includes a lateral portion providing a linear lateral path for the part of the moving floor and non-lateral portions providing a vertical path for the excess of the floor. The non-lateral portions may be located above or below the lateral portion. During rotation…
Apparatus and method for employing a multi-leaf collimator while administering a radiation dose
Granted: September 24, 2019
Patent Number:
10420958
These teachings provide for administering a radiation treatment plan to a patient in a single radiation treatment session using a multi-leaf collimator that is comprised of pairs of selectively movable collimating leaves. By one approach this comprises administering a sequential plurality of modulated radiation doses to the patient, where the sequential plurality of modulated radiation doses comprises at least a substantial majority of a planned total radiation dose for the radiation…
Methods and systems for radiotherapy treatment planning
Granted: September 17, 2019
Patent Number:
10417390
Example methods and systems for determining a treatment plan for a radiotherapy treatment system to deliver radiotherapy treatment to a patient are disclosed. In one embodiment, the method may comprise performing a particle transport simulation to initiate a first set of particle histories and a second set of particle histories from a radiation source of the radiotherapy treatment system to a treatment volume with multiple voxels representing an anatomy of the patient. The method may…
Dual-axis ring gantry radiotherapy systems
Granted: September 10, 2019
Patent Number:
10406382
A radiation system includes a radiation source providing therapeutic radiation, a first gantry supporting a second gantry carrying the radiation source. The first gantry is rotatable about a first axis passing through an isocenter, thereby allowing the radiation source to aim therapeutic radiation at a target volume from a plurality of locations in a first plane. The second gantry carrying the radiation source is rotatable about a second axis passing through the isocenter non-parallel…
Beam filter assembly and beam filter positioning device
Granted: September 3, 2019
Patent Number:
10403413
In a beam filter assembly, a base filter is employed to modify a beam quality of a radiation beam of a base energy level and a first filter slice is stacked with the base filter to modify a beam quality of a radiation beam of a first energy level higher than the base energy level. In a beam filter positioning device, a base stage carries a base filter and a first stage carries a filter slice. The base stage is provided with a first engagement site and a second engagement site. The first…
