SYSTEM FOR ENHANCING INTENSITY MODULATED RADIATION THERAPY, PROGRAM PRODUCT, AND RELATED METHODS

摘要

A system (30) to provide enhanced computational efficiency in determining dose in a media of varying density from a high-energy radiation-beam for radiation treatment, program product (37), and related methods are provided. The system (30) can include a radiation treatment planning computer (31) and radiation treatment planning program product (37) stored in the memory (33) of the radiation treatment planning computer (31) and adapted to enhance optimization of a radiation treatment plan for delivering radiation to a complex medium defining a patient volume. The radiation treatment planning program product (37) provides functions including those for predetermining a delivery machine-dependent representation of radiation dose for a plurality of different electron densities selected over a preselected representative range, predetermining a depth-dependent representation of central axis properties of a pencil beam passing through a complex medium for each of a plurality of pencil beams, and determining with constant time computational complexity radiation dose for each of a plurality of points of interest in a heterogeneous medium having a complex spatial distribution of heterogeneous electron densities by applying the predetermined machine-dependent and depth-dependent representations.