Multi-mode cone beam CT radiotherapy simulator and treatment machine with a flat panel imager
Granted: February 27, 2018
Patent Number:
9901750
A multi-mode cone beam computed tomography radiotherapy simulator and radiotherapy treatment machine is disclosed. The radiotherapy simulator and radiotherapy treatment machine both include a rotatable gantry on which is positioned a cone-beam radiation source and a flat panel imager. The flat panel imager captures x-ray image data to generate cone-beam CT volumetric images used to generate a therapy patient position setup and a treatment plan.
Radiation system with rotating patient support
Granted: February 27, 2018
Patent Number:
9901749
A patient support system includes a patient support having a surface for supporting a patient and a longitudinal axis, and a positioner coupled to the patient support for positioning the patient support, wherein the positioner is configured to move the patient support along a path that has an arc, circular, or zig-zag shape, and wherein the path lies within a plane that forms an angle with the surface of the patient support.
System and method for collision avoidance in medical systems
Granted: February 6, 2018
Patent Number:
9886534
A method of detecting a possible collision in a medical procedure that involves a medical system, includes: obtaining an image of a patient that is supported on a patient support; determining a first model using a processing unit based at least in part on the image, at least a part of the first model representing a surface of the patient; determining a second model using the processing unit, the second model representing a first component of the medical system; virtually moving the first…
Systems for efficient daily constancy check of proton therapy systems
Granted: January 23, 2018
Patent Number:
9873004
Systems and methods are provided for efficiently performing daily maintenance or quality assurance on proton therapy systems. Specifically, a system is provided which includes a solid-state phantom, a plurality of ionization chambers disposed within the solid-state phantom, and a measuring device coupled to the plurality of ionization chambers and operable to perform radiation measurements of proton beams received within the plurality of ionization chambers. Measurements of proton beams…
Medical linear accelerator signal analyzer and display device
Granted: January 16, 2018
Patent Number:
9872376
A method and system is proposed for providing automated, electronic testing of a linear accelerator from a remote position. According to one aspect of the claimed subject matter, a system is described which includes a linear accelerator with a scope circuit board, a multiplexer printed circuit board and a computing device. The multiplexer printed circuit board is coupled to the linear accelerator at a plurality of signal sites or locations corresponding to common areas of interest.…
Radiation therapy systems and methods for delivering doses to a target volume
Granted: January 2, 2018
Patent Number:
9855445
A radiation therapy system includes an accelerator and beam transport system that generates a beam of particles. The accelerator and beam transport system guides the beam on a path and into a nozzle that can aim the beam toward an object. The nozzle includes a beam energy adjuster that can adjust the beam by, for example, placing different thicknesses of material in the path of the beam to affect the energies of the particles in the beam to deliver a dose to the object with a Spread Out…
Systems and methods for generating beam-specific planning target volume design outputs
Granted: December 26, 2017
Patent Number:
9849306
System includes a beam generator to generate beam(s) for patient treatment and a computing device that obtains three-dimensional image(s) of a target structure that repositions with respect to surrounding tissue of the patient. The computing device creates plan(s) including a first three-dimensional probability distribution of patient's position and a second three-dimensional probability distribution of the repositioned structure's internal position. The computing device combines the…
Variable-speed computed tomography scanning
Granted: December 26, 2017
Patent Number:
9848835
In one embodiment of the invention, a method for obtaining a tomogram of an anatomical structure is disclosed. In one step, an anatomical structure is scanned using a scanning source and a scanning detector. Both the scanning source and detector are connected to a gantry. In another step, the speed of the gantry is altered during the scanning process. Additionally or optionally the frame rate of the scan can be modified in such step. In a particular embodiment of the invention, the speed…
Imaging-based self-adjusting radiation therapy systems, devices, and methods
Granted: December 19, 2017
Patent Number:
9844358
Systems, devices, and methods are presented for automatic tuning, calibration, and verification of radiation therapy systems comprising control elements configured to control parameters of the radiation therapy systems based on images obtained using electronic portal imaging devices (EPIDs) included in the radiation therapy system.
Proton irradiation using spot scanning
Granted: December 12, 2017
Patent Number:
9839795
In one embodiment of the invention, a method for irradiating a target is disclosed. A proton beam is generated using a cyclotron. A first information is provided to an energy selection system. An energy level for the protons is selected using an energy selection system based on the first information. The first information comprises a depth of said target. The proton beam is routed from the cyclotron through a beam transfer line to a scanning system. A second information is provided to…
Multi-axis dynamic tracking for radiation therapy
Granted: December 5, 2017
Patent Number:
9833636
A radiation device directs a beam of radiation onto a target. The beam can be adjusted using, for example, a control for setting beam shape and a control for setting beam intensity. The target is supported on a surface that can be adjusted using, for example, a control for setting surface position and a control for setting a speed for moving the surface. Controls are selected to adjust the beam and the surface cooperatively in order to compensate for movement of the target.
Automatic creation and selection of dose prediction models for treatment plans
Granted: November 28, 2017
Patent Number:
9827445
A dose prediction model can be determined for generating a dose distribution of a treatment plan for irradiating a target structure within a patient. Treatment plans from previous patients can be analyzed to determine D characteristic values to obtain a D dimensional point for each treatment plan. The treatment plans can be clustered based on the D dimensional points. The treatment plans of a cluster can then be used to determine a dose prediction model. A dose prediction model for…
Apparatus and method pertaining to movement compensation during radiation treatment
Granted: November 14, 2017
Patent Number:
9814908
A control circuit controls real-time administration of a radiation-treatment plan that administers a therapeutic radiation dose to a patient. This includes compensating for a first movement as regards the application setting using a first treatment-administration modality and responding to detection of a second movement by using a second treatment-administration modality that is different from the first treatment-administration modality.
Proton therapy multi-leaf collimator beam shaping
Granted: October 24, 2017
Patent Number:
9795805
System and method for shaping the intensity profile of a radiation beam incident on a target volume. Embodiments according to the present disclosure include a multi-leaf collimator (MLC) capable of sharpening (e.g., “trimming”) a proton beam, the MLC having a reduced overall weight. Leaves of the MLC according to embodiments of the present disclosure have two regions of different density, where a high density region is proximal to a radiation beam so as to block a portion of the…
System and method for in-layer synchronization for fast spot rescanning
Granted: October 17, 2017
Patent Number:
9789342
To overcome the difficulties inherent in conventional proton therapy systems, new techniques are described herein for synchronizing the application of proton radiation with the periodic movement of a target area. In an embodiment, a method is provided that combines multiple rescans of a spot scanning proton beam while monitoring the periodic motion of the target area, and aligning the applications of the proton beam with parameters of the periodic motion. For example, the direction(s)…
Methods and apparatus for the planning and delivery of radiation treatments
Granted: October 17, 2017
Patent Number:
9788783
Methods and apparatus are provided for planning and delivering radiation treatments by modalities which involve moving a radiation source along a trajectory relative to a subject while delivering radiation to the subject. In some embodiments the radiation source is moved continuously along the trajectory while in some embodiments the radiation source is moved intermittently. Some embodiments involve the optimization of the radiation delivery plan to meet various optimization goals while…
System and methods for processing images to measure collimator jaw and collimator performance
Granted: October 3, 2017
Patent Number:
9776018
Systems and methods are proposed for accurate and efficient automatic measurement of jaw and leaf positioning in multi-leaf collimator imaging systems. Specifically, the method enables the automated and objective processing of images to determine characteristics of collimator jaws and MLC leaves. These novel techniques enable verification of collimator component positioning to ensure accurate beam modulation for radiation application procedures.
Systems and methods for detecting camera defect caused by exposure to radiation
Granted: September 26, 2017
Patent Number:
9773318
A method of detecting camera defect includes: obtaining an image by a processing unit, the processing unit having a surface fit module, a subtraction module, and a peak quantification module; determining a first autocorrelation map for a first sub-region in the image; determining, using the surface fit module, a first surface fit for first scene content in the first sub-region; subtracting, using the subtraction module, the first surface fit from the first autocorrelation map for the…
Method and device for efficiently irradiating a target from multiple irradiation angles in a particle therapy system
Granted: September 19, 2017
Patent Number:
9764163
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…
Image comparison tool tolerant to deformable image matching
Granted: September 19, 2017
Patent Number:
9767380
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…
