Treatment planning and verification tools for adaptive radiation therapy

放射治疗寻求通过向肿瘤提供致命剂量的电离辐射来摧毁癌细胞，同时将周围健康组织的辐射降至最低。一种典型的放射治疗方案是以一系列每日治疗部分的形式在几周内进行的。当前放射治疗技术不是最优的一个重要领域是，它们没有考虑到治疗过程中解剖结构的变化。具体地说，在治疗过程中，由于呼吸和消化等生理过程，内部解剖结构会移动和变形。肿瘤缩小，周围组织的形态可以从一个治疗部分改变到下一个治疗部分。没有考虑到这些变化的治疗计划可能无法在肿瘤控制和保留健康组织之间实现最佳平衡。

Radiation therapy seeks to destroy cancerous cells by delivering a lethal dose of ionizing radiation to the tumour while minimizing the irradiation of surrounding healthy tissue. A typical radiation treatment regimen is delivered over a period of weeks in a series of daily treatment fractions. One important area in which current radiation therapy techniques are not optimal is that they do not account for the changes in anatomy during therapy. Specifically, internal anatomy will move and deform during treatment delivery due to physiological processes such as respiration and digestion. Tumours shrink and the configuration of the surrounding tissue can change from one treatment fraction to the next. Treatment plans which do not account for these changes may not achieve an optimum balance between tumour control and sparing healthy tissue.