RADIATION THERAPY SYSTEM USING INTERIOR-POINT METHODS AND CONVEX MODELS FOR INTENSITY MODULATED FLUENCE MAP OPTIMIZATION

摘要

A method of determining a treatment plan for intensity modulated radiation treatment (IMRT) divides a three-dimensional volume of a patient into a grid of dose voxels. At least a portion of the dose voxels are designated to belong to at least one target or to at least one critical structure. An ionizing radiation dose as delivered by a plurality of beamlets each having a beamlet intensity is modeled. A non-linear convex voxel-based penalty function model is provided for optimizing a fluence map. The fluence map defines the beamlet intensities for each of the plurality of beamlets. The model is then solved based on defined clinical criteria for the target and the critical structure using an interior point algorithm with dense column handling to obtain a globally optimal fluence map.