US 11,878,184 B2
Knowledge-based spatial dose metrics and methods to generate beam orientations in radiotherapy
Corey Zankowski, San Jose, CA (US); Janne Nord, Espoo (FI); Maria Isabel Cordero Marcos, Espoo (FI); Joona Hartman, Espoo (FI); Jarkko Peltola, Tuusula (FI); and Esa Kuusela, Espoo (FI)
Assigned to SIEMENS HEALTHINEERS INTERNATIONAL AG, Cham (CH)
Filed by Varian Medical Systems, Inc., Palo Alto, CA (US); and Varian Medical Systems International AG., Cham (CH)
Filed on May 17, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/322,735.
Application 16/121,235 is a division of application No. 14/850,625, filed on Sep. 10, 2015, granted, now 10,080,911, issued on Sep. 25, 2018.
Application 17/322,735 is a continuation of application No. 16/121,235, filed on Sep. 4, 2018, granted, now 11,027,147.
Prior Publication US 2021/0322789 A1, Oct. 21, 2021
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. A61N 5/10 (2006.01)
CPC A61N 5/1031 (2013.01) 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method for estimating a dose from a radiation therapy plan, the method comprising:
generating a plurality of normal vectors that emanate from a plurality of points on a surface of a representation of a target volume and extend to a body surface;
generating a dose fall-off curve along each of the normal vectors based on the radiation therapy plan, to produce a plurality of dose fall-off curves;
selecting a subset of the plurality of normal vectors that traverse an organ at risk;
determining a mean dose fall-off curve for the organ at risk based on the subset;
determining a dose-volume histogram for the organ at risk based on the mean dose fall-off curve and a mean distance between the target volume and the organ at risk; and
determining preferred beam orientations based on the dose fall-off curve along each of the normal vectors.