Optimisation of radiotherapy treatment planning

✍ Scribed by J.Stewart Orr

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1972
• Weight: 345 KB
• Volume: 2
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0010-468X
• DOI: 10.1016/0010-468x(72)90031-1

✦ Synopsis

The necessity of studying the whole of a process of optimisation is emphasised. The problem and objective of radiotherapy are stated and the reasons for treatment planning optimisation being at present confined to the distribution of absorbed dose are discussed.

There exist generally accepted criteria for judging dose distributions and these are being studied by the use of rapid calculation and display with small dedicated computers. This interactive approach is known as visual optimisation.

The criteria can also be expressed quantitatively and a suitable objective function can be minimised. Linear programming has been used for this minimisation but suffers from disadvantages due to the non-linearity of the problem. Simple enumeration has been used with some success and has helped to improve the formulation of a non-linear objective function.

The very considerable possibilities of advance offered by more sophisticated techniques are outlined.

Optimisation Non-linear Radiotherapy

Computer