KR20200114039A - System and method for respiration-gated radiotherapy evaluation - Google Patents

Abstract

An embodiment of the present invention provides a system for respiration-gated radiotherapy evaluation, comprising: a signal obtaining unit for obtaining a respiration signal of a patient and a beam signal including radiotherapy irradiation information during respiration-gated radiotherapy from a radiotherapy system; an evaluation data generation unit for generating evaluation data for evaluating the respiration-gated radiotherapy by using the obtained respiration signal and beam signal; and a determination unit for performing one among therapy efficiency evaluation, therapy accuracy evaluation and equipment accuracy evaluation of the respiration-gated radiotherapy.

Description

Respiratory interlocking radiation therapy evaluation system and its method TECHNICAL FIELD [SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR RESPIRATION-GATED RADIOTHERAPY EVALUATION}

Embodiments of the present invention relate to a system and method for evaluating radiation therapy associated with breathing.

One of the important factors to be aware of when treating patients with 4D radiation therapy or respiratory synchrotron radiation therapy is that it should be done with the premise that long-term movements are constant during radiation therapy. There may be various types of motor elements that affect organ movements of the human body, but among them, maintaining consistent breathing is a very important factor in radiation therapy.

Radiation treatment using a medical radiation therapy device may be the most important factor in intensively irradiating the tumor site with radiation and delivering a minimum dose to surrounding normal tissues. In particular, in radiation therapy for moving organs, a technique of controlling the beam according to the fluctuation of the geometrical movement of the organ that occurs during radiation treatment is indispensable.

Various devices are used to fulfill the prerequisites related to breathing during the radiation treatment as described above, but most of these devices use only guide signals, so that the patient cannot check the patient's own breathing status, and only breathes as intuitively practiced. There is a situation.

To this end, the conventional radiation treatment technology mainly uses a gating method of controlling and treating a medical radiation treatment device using a Real-time position management (RPM) system. However, the success or failure of the treatment of this technology lies in the stability of the breathing of radiation therapy patients, and the problem of respiration-tuned radiation therapy of patients with unstable breathing increases the treatment time. In addition, since the RPM system sets a phase of breathing with only a breathing cycle and applies it to respiration-tuned radiation therapy, there is no consideration of the breathing pattern or the volume of breath, so the accuracy of the treatment is very poor.

Particularly, body stereotactic radiation treatment for moving organs has a significantly longer treatment time compared to other radiation treatments, and the risk of side effects can also be very high, so in order to solve this problem, the patient is educated to have a stable breathing cycle and volume and after practicing breathing. Radiotherapy was performed. However, the conventional radiation therapy system does not have a feedback function that informs the patient how effective such training or breathing exercises have been for radiation therapy, or accurately informs the patient of the improvement, and there is no means of evaluating whether the respiratory-linked radiation therapy itself is suitable for the patient or not. Since it does not exist, there is a problem that the efficiency and accuracy of treatment are poor.

The above-described background technology is technical information possessed by the inventors for derivation of the present invention or acquired during the derivation process of the present invention, and is not necessarily known to be publicly known prior to filing the present invention.

Embodiments of the present invention are intended to provide a system and method for evaluating respiratory-linked radiation therapy that can evaluate and give feedback on how efficient and accurate whether respiratory-linked radiation therapy is suitable for each patient.

An embodiment of the present invention is a signal acquisition unit for acquiring a beam signal including a patient's breathing signal and radiation irradiation information during respiratory-linked radiation therapy from a radiation treatment system, and using the acquired breathing signal and the beam signal. An evaluation data generation unit generating evaluation data for evaluating the respiratory-linked radiation therapy and the evaluation data of any one of the evaluation of the treatment efficiency of the respiratory-linked radiation therapy, the treatment accuracy evaluation, and the equipment accuracy evaluation using the generated evaluation data It provides a breathing-linked radiation treatment evaluation system including a determining unit to perform.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the determination unit may determine whether the patient is appropriate for respiratory-linked radiation therapy using the derived evaluation result, and provide the determination result to the radiation treatment system.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the evaluation data generation unit generates the evaluation data using any one of respiratory cycle information, average amplitude information, standard deviation information, and peak value information derived from the breathing signal. can do.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the evaluation data generation unit uses one of the respiratory period information, the average amplitude information, the standard deviation information, and the peak value information to shift the baseline of the breathing signal ( baseline shift) can be created.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the determination unit includes an expected margin given when generating a planning target volume of a patient during a radiation treatment plan, and a real margin derived from the baseline shift. ) Can be compared to perform the treatment accuracy evaluation.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the beam signal is based on pre-set reference radiation irradiation information corresponding to the planned breathing cycle of the patient during the radiation treatment plan, and the actual breathing cycle of the patient obtained in simulated treatment or actual treatment. It may include information about actual irradiation conducted in response.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the evaluation data generation unit calculates a reference duty factor from the reference radiation irradiation information, calculates an actual duty ratio from the actual radiation irradiation information, and then generates the evaluation data. , The determination unit may evaluate the treatment efficiency of the respiratory-linked radiation therapy by using the evaluation data.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the evaluation data generation unit calculates a radiation irradiation time error using the reference radiation irradiation information and the actual radiation irradiation information, and the determination unit calculates a preset error range and the radiation irradiation time error. It is possible to perform the equipment accuracy evaluation by comparing.

In one embodiment of the present invention, obtaining a beam signal including a respiration signal and radiation irradiation information of a patient during respiration-linked radiation treatment from a radiation treatment system, the respiration-linked radiation using the obtained respiration signal and the beam signal Comprising the step of generating evaluation data for evaluating treatment and performing any one of evaluation of treatment efficiency, treatment accuracy evaluation, and equipment accuracy evaluation of the respiratory-linked radiation therapy using the generated evaluation data, Provides a method for evaluating respiratory-linked radiation therapy.

In an embodiment of the present invention, it may further include the step of determining whether the patient is suitable for respiratory-linked radiation therapy using the derived evaluation result and providing the determination result to the radiation treatment system.

In an embodiment of the present invention, generating the evaluation data comprises generating the evaluation data using any one of respiratory cycle information, average amplitude information, standard deviation information, and crest value information derived from the breathing signal. can do.

In an embodiment of the present invention, generating the evaluation data includes: a baseline shift of the breathing signal using any one of the breathing period information, the average amplitude information, the standard deviation information, and the crest value information. Can be generated.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the performing of the evaluation comprises comparing an expected margin given when generating a treatment target application of a patient during a radiation treatment plan with an actual margin derived from the baseline shift to evaluate the treatment accuracy. You can do it.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the beam signal is based on pre-set reference radiation irradiation information corresponding to the planned breathing cycle of the patient during the radiation treatment plan, and the actual breathing cycle of the patient obtained in simulated treatment or actual treatment. It may include information about actual irradiation conducted in response.

In an embodiment of the present invention, generating the evaluation data comprises: calculating a reference duty ratio from the reference radiation irradiation information, calculating an actual duty ratio from the actual radiation irradiation information, and then generating the evaluation data. In the performing of the evaluation, the evaluation data may be used to evaluate the treatment efficiency of the respiratory-linked radiation therapy.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the generating of the evaluation data comprises: calculating a radiation irradiation time error using the reference radiation radiation information and the actual radiation radiation information to generate the evaluation data, and performing the evaluation. In the step of, the equipment accuracy evaluation may be performed by comparing a preset error range with the radiation irradiation time error.

An embodiment of the present invention provides a computer program stored in a medium to execute any one of the above-described methods using a computer.

Other aspects, features, and advantages other than those described above will become apparent from the following drawings, claims, and detailed description of the invention.

The system and method for evaluating respiration-linked radiation therapy according to the embodiments of the present invention generate and provide an evaluation index for evaluating respiration-linked radiation therapy, thereby providing the patient with the appropriateness of respiration-linked radiation therapy as an evaluation result. And, through this, the radiation plan can be changed to a radiation treatment suitable for the patient, thereby improving the efficiency and accuracy of radiation treatment.

1 is a block diagram schematically illustrating a system for evaluating respiration-linked radiation therapy according to an embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a diagram illustrating the radiation treatment system of FIG. 1.
3 is a diagram sequentially showing a method of evaluating respiration-linked radiation therapy according to an embodiment of the present invention.
4 is a diagram for explaining a method of generating evaluation data for evaluating treatment efficiency in a method of evaluating respiration-linked radiation therapy.
5 and 6 are diagrams for explaining a method of generating evaluation data for evaluation of treatment accuracy in a method of evaluating respiration-linked radiation therapy.
7 and 8 are diagrams for explaining a method of generating evaluation data for evaluating equipment accuracy in a method for evaluating respiration-linked radiation therapy.

Since the present invention can apply various transformations and have various embodiments, specific embodiments are illustrated in the drawings and will be described in detail in the detailed description. Effects and features of the present invention, and a method of achieving them will be apparent with reference to the embodiments described later in detail together with the drawings. However, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments disclosed below and may be implemented in various forms.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, and when describing with reference to the drawings, the same or corresponding constituent elements are assigned the same reference numerals, and redundant descriptions thereof will be omitted. .

In the following embodiments, terms such as first and second are not used in a limiting meaning, but for the purpose of distinguishing one component from another component.

In the following examples, the singular expression includes the plural expression unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.

In the following embodiments, terms such as include or have means that the features or elements described in the specification are present, and do not preclude the possibility of adding one or more other features or elements in advance.

In the following embodiments, when a part such as a film, a region, or a component is on or on another part, not only the case directly above the other part, but also another film, region, component, etc. are interposed therebetween. This includes cases where there is.

In the drawings, components may be exaggerated or reduced in size for convenience of description. For example, the size and thickness of each component shown in the drawings are arbitrarily shown for convenience of description, and the present invention is not necessarily limited to what is shown.

When a certain embodiment can be implemented differently, a specific process order may be performed differently from the described order. For example, two processes described in succession may be performed substantially simultaneously, or may be performed in an order opposite to the described order.

In the following embodiments, when a film, a region, a component, etc. are connected, not only the film, the region, and the components are directly connected, but other films, regions, and components are interposed between the film, the region and the components. It includes cases that are connected indirectly. For example, in this specification, when a film, region, component, etc. are electrically connected, not only the film, region, component, etc. are directly electrically connected, but also other films, regions, components, etc. are interposed therebetween. This includes indirect electrical connections.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically illustrating a system for evaluating respiratory interlocking radiation therapy 1 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the radiation therapy system 2 of FIG. 1.

1 and 2, the breathing-linked radiation therapy evaluation system 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a signal acquisition unit 110, an evaluation data generation unit 130, and a determination unit 150. I can. The respiratory-linked radiation therapy evaluation system (1) receives breathing signals and beam signals from the radiation therapy system (2) that performs radiation treatment planning and treatment for patients, and uses them to evaluate, which is an evaluation index for respiratory-linked radiation therapy. After generating data, it is a system that evaluates the respiratory-linked radiation therapy for the patient. This will be described in more detail as follows.

In detail, with the advancement of radiation treatment technology such as radiation surgery, intensity-controlled radiation treatment, and image-guided radiation treatment, it is possible to ensure that the minimum dose is delivered to the normal breakfast around the target, and most of the dose is intensively irradiated to the tumor site. Became. Meanwhile, radiation therapy for tumors in the lung, liver, and abdomen affected by respiratory movements is also continuously increasing.

However, radiation treatment for organs that have movement due to breathing such as lungs and liver, due to the movement of the treatment organs, has poor precision and accuracy in terms of radiation delivery technology, so it is not possible to focus the radiation dose on a desired location or There are limitations to be investigated. In order to overcome this, in the field of radiation therapy, radiation therapy is performed using a breathing method.

The success or failure of respiratory-linked radiation therapy lies in controlling the beam according to fluctuations in the geometrical movement of organs that occur during or between treatments. Particularly, in the case of particle ray radiation therapy, which has recently been in the spotlight, the introduction of respiration-linked radiation therapy is indispensable because it is significantly affected by the change in radiation dose due to the movement of the treatment organ compared to the conventional treatment. In the conventional radiation therapy technology for this, a gating method that tracks only the movement of an extracorporeal marker based on a linear accelerator is used, and in this method, respiration synchronization is performed using a Real-time Position Management (RPM) system.

However, the success or failure of the treatment of this technology lies in the stability of the breathing of radiation therapy patients, and the problem of respiration-tuning radiation therapy of patients with unstable breathing increases the treatment time. Particularly, since the treatment time is very long in body part radiation therapy and body part radiation surgery, it is very important to educate the patient to have a regular and stable respiratory cycle and volume during radiation treatment and to practice breathing.

However, it cannot be said that such respiratory-linked radiation therapy is effective for all patients. If the patient's breathing regularity is poor, radiation therapy for organs caused by movement has a worse effect, and thus, respiratory-linked radiation therapy may be unsuitable for such patients. Conventionally, since there is no system for evaluating whether respiration-linked radiation therapy is suitable for a patient or not, there is a problem of performing respiratory-linked radiation therapy collectively even for unsuitable patients.

In order to solve such a problem, in the respiratory-linked radiation therapy evaluation system 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention, evaluation data, which is an evaluation index of respiratory-linked radiation therapy, is generated, and the patient is breathed using the evaluation data. Provides a system and method for evaluating whether peristaltic radiotherapy itself is appropriate or predicting the optimal breathing method of a patient by evaluating the effectiveness, accuracy and accuracy of equipment.

Hereinafter, each component of the respiratory interlinked radiation therapy evaluation system 1 of the present invention will be described in more detail.

The signal acquisition unit 110 may acquire a beam signal including the patient's breathing signal and radiation irradiation information during respiratory-linked radiation therapy from the radiation treatment system 2.

Here, the radiation treatment system 2 is a system for performing simulated treatment or actual treatment according to a radiation treatment plan, and in particular, an imaging unit 203 and a breathing signal conversion unit ( 211), and includes a radiation irradiation unit 250 for irradiating radiation in connection with the patient's breathing signal. In addition, although the radiation treatment system 2 is not shown, a control unit (not shown), an input/output unit 205, a memory (not shown), and a program storage unit (not shown) capable of controlling components in the radiation treatment system 2 City) and the like may be further provided.

The control unit (not shown) is a kind of central processing unit and controls the entire process of irradiating radiation in conjunction with the patient's breath in the radiation treatment system 2. That is, the control unit (not shown) drives the control software installed in the program storage unit (not shown), controls the imaging unit 203 to take a breathing image of the patient, and captures the patient's breathing image obtained by the imaging unit 204. It is possible to control the radiation irradiation unit 250 to obtain a respiration signal by image processing and tracking analysis of the respiration image, and to irradiate a radiation beam in connection with the respiration signal.

Meanwhile, the input/output unit 205 may perform a function of providing a breathing guide signal to a patient during respiratory-linked radiation therapy. The input/output unit 205 may be configured with a touch-sensitive display controller or various input/output controllers. For example, the touch-sensitive display controller provides an output interface and an input interface between a device and a user. The touch-sensitive display controller transmits and receives electrical signals to and from the controller. In addition, the touch-sensitive display controller displays a visual output to the user, and the visual output may include text, graphics, images, video, and combinations thereof. The input/output unit 205 may be, for example, a predetermined display member such as an organic light emitting display (OLED) or liquid crystal display (LCD) capable of recognizing a touch. In FIG. 2, as an example of the input/output unit 205, a glasses-type goggle display and a monitor are shown, but the present invention is not limited thereto, and various types of display devices such as PDA and smart phone may be applied.

The memory (not shown) performs a function of temporarily storing data, etc. processed by the control unit (not shown).

The program storage unit (not shown) is a task in which the radiation treatment system 2 captures the patient's breathing image and obtains the patient's breathing signal from it, the work of irradiating radiation in conjunction with the patient's breathing signal, and a guide signal to the patient. It is equipped with control software that performs tasks and the like.

The respiration signal conversion unit 211 acquires a respiration signal according to time t by image processing and tracking analysis of the patient's respiration image acquired by the imaging unit 204. To this end, a predetermined marker 230 may be disposed on the chest or abdomen of the patient, and the movement of the marker 230 among the breathing images of the patient acquired by the imaging unit 203 is image-processed and traced to analyze the respiratory signal. Can be obtained. At this time, a patient signal of the patient acquired by the respiration signal conversion unit 211 may be displayed on the input/output unit 205 in the form of a sine wave as shown in FIG. 8.

The radiation irradiation unit 250 may irradiate radiation in response to the breathing signal obtained from the breathing signal conversion unit 211 under the control of a control unit (not shown). The radiation irradiation unit 250 may generate a beam signal including radiation beam irradiation information and transmit it to the respiratory-linked radiation treatment evaluation system 1. At this time, the beam signal includes information on reference radiation irradiation previously set in response to the patient's planned breathing cycle in the radiation treatment plan, and actual radiation irradiation information performed in response to the actual breathing cycle of the patient acquired in simulated treatment or actual treatment. can do. In other words, the beam signal may be generated including information about ideal radiation irradiation generated by a radiation treatment plan and information about radiation radiation that is actually irradiated when performing the treatment. Meanwhile, here, the simulated treatment may include a case where the patient first attempts to breathe to establish a radiation treatment plan, and a case where the patient attempts to breathe according to the practiced breathing cycle after having the patient perform practice breathing.

Returning to the description of the respiration-linked radiation treatment evaluation system 1 again, the signal acquisition unit 110 of the respiration-linked radiation treatment evaluation system 1 receives a respiration signal from the respiration signal conversion unit 211, and the radiation irradiation unit A beam signal may be provided from 250. Like the beam signal, the respiration signal may include a reference respiration signal according to a radiation treatment plan and an actual respiration signal obtained in a simulated treatment or an actual treatment.

The evaluation data generation unit 130 may generate evaluation data for evaluating the respiratory-linked radiation therapy by using the acquired respiration signal and the beam signal. Here, the evaluation data is an evaluation index for evaluating respiration-linked radiation therapy, which is data processed using respiration signals and beam signals to perform efficiency evaluation, treatment accuracy evaluation, and equipment accuracy evaluation described later. I can.

The evaluation data generation unit 130 may derive breathing period information, average amplitude information, standard deviation information, peak value information, error bar information, and the like from the breathing signal and use it to generate evaluation data. In addition, the evaluation data generation unit 130 is a beam signal, that is, from the reference radiation irradiation information and the actual radiation irradiation information, the total radiation setting time, the total radiation treatment time, the radiation beam irradiation time (beam on timing), the radiation beam stop time (beam off timing), etc. can be derived and used to generate evaluation data.

The evaluation data generating unit 130 generates evaluation data for evaluating the efficiency of respiration-linked radiation therapy using the above information, or generates evaluation data for evaluating the accuracy of respiration-linked radiation therapy, and sends the evaluation data to the determination unit 150. Can provide. In addition, the evaluation data generation unit 130 generates evaluation data for evaluating the suitability/incompatibility of the respiratory-linked radiation therapy for the patient, and also generates evaluation data for evaluating the accuracy of the equipment to the entire radiation treatment system. It may be provided to the determination unit 150 as an evaluation index for evaluating. A detailed method of generating the evaluation data in the evaluation data generation unit 130 will be described later.

Meanwhile, the determination unit 150 may determine whether or not the respiratory-linked radiation therapy is suitable for the patient using the generated evaluation data, or determine whether the equipment accurately irradiated the radiation. Specifically, the determination unit 150 may perform any one of evaluation of treatment efficiency, evaluation of treatment accuracy, and equipment accuracy of respiratory-linked radiation therapy. However, the present invention is not limited thereto, and the determination unit 150 may perform all of the above evaluations, as well as other evaluation methods for evaluating respiration-linked radiation therapy.

The determination unit 150 may compare the reference range and the evaluation data previously set by the medical staff and evaluate the respiratory-linked radiation therapy. In this case, not only one reference range is set, but by setting the reference range in several steps, each Depending on the stage, you can perform an appropriate evaluation.

The determination unit 150 may determine whether or not the respiratory-linked radiation therapy is suitable for the patient using the derived evaluation result, and provide the determination result to the radiation treatment system 2. The radiation treatment system 2 may perform feedback such as stopping breathing-linked radiation treatment or re-inducing the patient's breath to increase efficiency according to the determination result provided from the determination unit 150. The determination unit 150 may provide feedback on breathing-linked radiation therapy by using a breathing signal obtained when the patient performs breathing for the first time in simulated treatment, and is obtained when practicing breathing after practicing breathing. It is also possible to provide feedback on respiratory-linked radiation therapy using breathing signals. In addition, the determination unit 150 may provide feedback on respiratory-linked radiation therapy by using a breathing signal obtained when a patient performs breathing in an actual treatment.

Like the above-described control unit (not shown), the determination unit 150 may include all types of devices capable of processing data, such as a processor. Here, the'processor' may refer to a data processing device embedded in hardware having a circuit physically structured to perform a function represented by a code or instruction included in a program. As an example of such a data processing device built into the hardware, a microprocessor, a central processing unit (CPU), a processor core, a multiprocessor, and an application-specific integrated (ASIC) Circuit) and processing devices such as a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) may be covered, but the scope of the present invention is not limited thereto.

Hereinafter, a method for evaluating respiration-linked radiation therapy according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 3 to 8.

3 is a diagram sequentially showing a method of evaluating respiration-linked radiation therapy according to an embodiment of the present invention. 4 is a diagram for explaining a method of generating evaluation data for evaluating treatment efficiency in a method for evaluating respiration-linked radiation therapy, and FIGS. 5 and 6 are evaluation data for evaluating treatment accuracy in a method for evaluating respiration-linked radiation therapy It is a diagram for explaining a method of generating, Figures 7 and 8 are diagrams for explaining a method of generating evaluation data for equipment accuracy evaluation in the respiratory interlocked radiation treatment evaluation method.

First, referring to FIG. 3, the method for evaluating respiration-linked radiation therapy according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a beam signal including a patient's respiration signal and radiation irradiation information during respiration-linked radiation treatment from the radiation treatment system 2 Acquiring (S100), generating evaluation data for evaluating respiratory-linked radiation therapy using the acquired respiration signal and beam signal (S200), and evaluating the treatment efficiency of respiratory-linked radiation therapy using the generated evaluation data (S310), treatment accuracy evaluation (S320) and equipment accuracy evaluation (S330), including performing any one of the evaluation. In addition, the method of evaluating respiration-linked radiation therapy may further include a step (S400) of determining whether the patient is appropriate for respiration-linked radiation therapy using the derived evaluation result, and providing the determination result to the radiation treatment system (2). I can.

This will be described in more detail as follows.

First, when the radiation treatment system 2 generates a reference breathing signal having an ideal breathing cycle for the patient according to the radiation treatment plan, and generates a beam signal including reference radiation irradiation information corresponding thereto, the signal acquisition unit 110 ) Acquires a beam signal including a reference respiration signal and reference radiation irradiation information from the radiation treatment system 2. In addition, when the radiation treatment system 2 performs the simulated treatment of the patient or performs the actual first treatment, the signal acquisition unit 110 includes the actual respiration signal and the actual radiation irradiation information from the radiation treatment system 2 A beam signal may be obtained (S100).

Next, the evaluation data generation unit 130 generates evaluation data for evaluating the respiratory-linked radiation therapy using the acquired respiration signal and the beam signal (S200). At this time, the evaluation data generation unit 130 can derive the respiratory cycle information, the average amplitude information, the standard deviation information, the peak value information, the error bar information, etc. from the breathing signal and use it to generate the evaluation data. have. In addition, the evaluation data generation unit 130 is a beam signal, that is, from the reference radiation irradiation information and the actual radiation irradiation information, the total radiation setting time, the total radiation treatment time, the radiation beam irradiation time (beam on timing), the radiation beam stop time (beam off timing), etc. can be derived and used to generate evaluation data.

The evaluation data generation unit 130 may generate various evaluation data for evaluating respiration-linked radiation therapy. As an embodiment, evaluation data for evaluation of treatment efficiency, evaluation data for evaluation of treatment accuracy, and equipment accuracy evaluation are performed. You can create evaluation data for Hereinafter, a method of generating each evaluation data will be described in more detail with reference to the drawings.

3 and 4, the evaluation data generation unit 130 calculates a reference duty factor (Dref) from the above-described reference radiation irradiation information as shown in Equation 1 below (S311), and A real duty factor (Dreal) is calculated from the survey information (S312).

[Equation 1]

Here, the total set time refers to the total planned treatment time according to the radiation treatment plan, and the set time to which the beam is applied refers to the time that the beam is irradiated according to the radiation treatment plan, specifically, the time that the beam is irradiated during the total set time. do.

In irradiating the radiation beam according to the radiation treatment plan, the most ideal plan is to continuously irradiate the beam for the entire set time. However, as described above, in the case of organs that are moved by the patient's breath, the beam must be irradiated or stopped according to the breathing cycle in order to accurately irradiate the beam to the target site, and through this, the ratio of the time the beam is irradiated out of the total set time. Phosphorus-based duty ratio (Dref) can be calculated. The reference duty ratio (Dref) can be set in advance by the radiation treatment plan.

Referring to Equation 1 again, the total treatment time means the total treatment time performed in the simulated treatment or the actual treatment, and the treatment time applied to the beam is the time when the actual beam is irradiated, specifically, the beam is It means the time to be investigated.

Even if the patient's ideal respiratory cycle is trained and guided according to the radiation treatment plan, the respiratory cycle may become irregular during simulation or actual treatment. Since the radiation treatment system 2 irradiates the patient with radiation in conjunction with breathing, the time at which the actual radiation beam is irradiated due to an irregular actual breathing cycle is different from the planned irradiation time. The actual duty ratio (Dreal) can be calculated as the ratio of the time the beam is irradiated out of the total treatment time.

Next, the evaluation data generation unit 130 may generate evaluation data, which is a treatment efficiency evaluation index, as shown in Equation 2 by using the reference duty ratio Dref and the actual duty ratio Dreal (S313).

[Equation 2]

The determination unit 150 may evaluate the efficiency of radiation treatment by comparing the previously set range with the calculated treatment efficiency evaluation data TE (S314). As an embodiment, when the treatment efficiency evaluation data TE is less than a first reference value (eg, 90%) set in advance, the determination unit 150 may determine that respiratory-linked radiation therapy is inappropriate for the patient. Can be (S315). The determination unit 150 may provide the result of this determination to the radiation treatment system 2, and the radiation treatment system 2 may completely reestablish or review a radiation treatment plan in response thereto. At this time, the radiation treatment system 2 may change the plan to a plan not to perform respiratory-linked radiation treatment. Alternatively, the radiation therapy system 2 may perform breathing training of the patient again according to other respiratory-linked radiation therapy.

On the other hand, when the treatment efficiency evaluation data TE is equal to or greater than a first reference value (eg, 90%) set in advance, and less than a second reference value (eg, 95%), A warning signal can be provided to the radiation treatment system 2 (S316), and if it is greater than a preset second reference value (eg, 95%), it is determined that the respiratory-linked radiation therapy is suitable for the patient ( S317), the determination result may be provided to the radiation treatment system 2.

3, 5, and 6, the evaluation data generation unit 130 includes breathing period information, average amplitude information, standard deviation information, peak value information, and error bar information of a breathing signal. A baseline shift of the breathing signal may be generated as evaluation data by using at least one of them (S322). Here, the baseline of the breathing signal is the tendency of the breathing signal over time, for example, a line connecting the phases of the breathing signal at the same point in the repetitive cycle, or the peak value of the breathing cycle. It can be a line connecting them. The baseline shift means the degree to which the baseline is inclined, and may mean that the respiration signal over time is unstable. Or, as another embodiment, as shown in FIG. 6, when using a deep inspiration breath hold (DIBH) method, which is one of the breathing-linked radiation treatment methods, the baseline is the patient's breathing. It may also be a line connecting values in a state of reference.

As described above, the respiration signal is derived by image processing and tracking analysis of the respiration image acquired by the imaging unit 203 by photographing the marker 230, and the indication that the baseline of the respiration signal is inclined is the indicator 230 This could mean that the location of has changed. The change in the position of the marker 230 may mean sagging of the patient's organs due to breathing. Therefore, in respiratory-linked radiation therapy, the above-described shift of the baseline means that the position of the target site is changed.

In this case, the determination unit 150 may first acquire and store an expected margin (EM) given when generating a planning target volume of the patient during the radiation treatment plan (S321). The radiation treatment system (2) sets an expectation margin (EM) to provide margin so that the dose irradiated to the critical target volume (CTV) is not omitted even if an error occurs during radiation treatment in the radiation treatment plan. , When setting a moving tumor (internal target volume, ITV), an expectation margin (EM) may be set (see S1, S2, FIG. 6) to provide a margin.

The determination unit 150 may perform treatment accuracy evaluation by comparing the expected margin EM with a real margin RM derived from the baseline shift (S323). As shown in FIG. 6, the expected margin EM may be a preset range consisting of a first margin value S1 and a second margin value S2, and the actual margin RM derived from the baseline shift. In other words, if the degree to which the baseline is shifted exceeds the expected margin (EM), it may be determined that respiratory-linked radiation therapy is inappropriate for the patient (S324). The determination unit 150 may provide the result of this determination to the radiation treatment system 2, and the radiation treatment system 2 may completely reestablish or review a radiation treatment plan in response thereto. At this time, the radiation treatment system 2 may change the plan to a plan not to perform respiratory-linked radiation treatment. Alternatively, the radiation therapy system 2 may perform breathing training of the patient again according to other respiratory-linked radiation therapy.

In addition, the determination unit 150 compares the expected margin (EM) and the actual margin (RM) (S323), and if the actual margin (RM) is less than the expected margin (EM), it is determined that the corresponding respiratory-linked radiation therapy is suitable for the patient. It can judge and provide the result of the judgment to the radiation treatment system 2.

On the other hand, referring to FIGS. 3, 7 and 8, the evaluation data generation unit 130 generates evaluation data by calculating a radiation irradiation time difference using reference radiation irradiation information and actual radiation irradiation information ( S331). Specifically, the reference radiation irradiation information provided from the radiation treatment plan includes reference beam irradiation time (Beam on _ref ) information set in response to the reference respiratory cycle (bold arrow, see Fig. 8), and the actual radiation irradiation information As applied radiation irradiation information, it includes information about the actual beam irradiation time (Beam on _real ) (thin arrow, see FIG. 8). The evaluation data generation unit 130 may generate machine accuracy evaluation data (MA) from a difference between the reference beam irradiation time and the actual beam irradiation time, as shown in Equation 3 below.

[Equation 3]

The equipment accuracy evaluation data (MA) represents an error caused by the difference between the planned irradiation time and the actual irradiation time, and can be used as an index to evaluate how accurate the equipment is.

The determination unit 150 may receive the equipment accuracy evaluation data MA, compare it with a preset error range (S323), and determine that the equipment accuracy is high and that the radiation treatment is suitable (S325). However, the determination unit 150 may compare the equipment accuracy evaluation data MA with a preset error range, and if it is out of the range, the equipment accuracy is low, and thus, may determine that the respiratory-linked radiation therapy is inappropriate (S324). The determination unit 150 may provide the result of this determination to the radiation treatment system 2, and the radiation treatment system 2 may completely reestablish or review a radiation treatment plan in response thereto.

As described above, the system and method for evaluating respiration-linked radiation therapy according to embodiments of the present invention generate and provide an evaluation index for evaluating respiration-linked radiation therapy, thereby evaluating whether respiration-linked radiation therapy is suitable for patients. As a result, the radiation plan can be changed to a radiation treatment suitable for the patient through which the efficiency and accuracy of radiation treatment can be improved.

The embodiment according to the present invention described above may be implemented in the form of a computer program that can be executed through various components on a computer, and such a computer program may be recorded in a computer-readable medium. In this case, the medium may store a program executable by a computer. Examples of media include magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks, and magnetic tapes, optical recording media such as CD-ROMs and DVDs, magnetic-optical media such as floptical disks, and And a ROM, RAM, flash memory, and the like, and may be configured to store program instructions.

Meanwhile, the computer program may be specially designed and configured for the present invention, or may be known and usable to those skilled in the computer software field. Examples of the computer program may include not only machine language codes produced by a compiler but also high-level language codes that can be executed by a computer using an interpreter or the like.

The specific implementations described in the present invention are examples, and do not limit the scope of the present invention in any way. For brevity of the specification, descriptions of conventional electronic configurations, control systems, software, and other functional aspects of the systems may be omitted. In addition, the connection or connection members of the lines between the components shown in the drawings exemplarily represent functional connections and/or physical or circuit connections. It may be referred to as a connection, or circuit connections. In addition, if there is no specific mention such as "essential", "important", etc., it may not be an essential component for the application of the present invention.

Therefore, the spirit of the present invention is limited to the above-described embodiments and should not be defined, and all ranges equivalent to or equivalently changed from the claims to be described later as well as the claims to be described later are the scope of the spirit of the invention. It will be said to belong to.

1: Respiratory interlocking radiation therapy evaluation system
2: radiation therapy system
110: signal acquisition unit
130: evaluation data generation unit
150: judgment unit

Claims (17)

A signal acquisition unit for acquiring a beam signal including a respiratory signal and radiation irradiation information of a patient during respiratory-linked radiation therapy from the radiation treatment system;
An evaluation data generator for generating evaluation data for evaluating the respiratory-linked radiation therapy by using the acquired respiration signal and the beam signal; And
Containing, a respiratory-linked radiation therapy evaluation system comprising; a determination unit that performs any one of evaluation of the treatment efficiency, treatment accuracy, and equipment accuracy of the respiratory-linked radiation therapy using the generated evaluation data.
The method of claim 1,
The determination unit determines whether or not the patient is suitable for respiration-linked radiation therapy using the derived evaluation result, and provides the judgment result to the radiation treatment system.
The method of claim 1,
The evaluation data generation unit generates the evaluation data using any one of respiratory cycle information, average amplitude information, standard deviation information, and peak value information derived from the breathing signal.
The method of claim 3,
The evaluation data generator generates a baseline shift of the breathing signal using any one of the breathing period information, the average amplitude information, the standard deviation information, and the peak value information, breathing interlocking Radiotherapy evaluation system.
The method of claim 4,
The determination unit compares an expected margin given when generating a planning target volume of a patient during a radiation treatment plan and a real margin derived from the baseline shift to evaluate the treatment accuracy. Performing, respiratory interlocking radiation therapy evaluation system.
The method of claim 1,
The beam signal includes reference radiation irradiation information set in advance in response to the planned breathing cycle of the patient in the radiation treatment plan, and actual radiation irradiation information performed in response to the actual breathing cycle of the patient acquired in simulated treatment or actual treatment. Containing, respiratory interrelated radiation therapy evaluation system.
The method of claim 6,
The evaluation data generator calculates a reference duty factor from the reference radiation irradiation information, calculates an actual duty ratio from the actual radiation radiation information, and then generates the evaluation data,
The determination unit performs the evaluation of the treatment efficiency of the respiratory-linked radiation therapy by using the evaluation data, the respiratory-linked radiation therapy evaluation system.
The method of claim 6,
The evaluation data generation unit calculates a radiation irradiation time error using the reference radiation radiation information and the actual radiation radiation information,
The determination unit to perform the equipment accuracy evaluation by comparing a predetermined error range and the radiation irradiation time error, respiratory interlocked radiation therapy evaluation system.
Acquiring a beam signal including a respiratory signal and radiation irradiation information of a patient during respiratory-linked radiation therapy from a radiation treatment system;
Generating evaluation data for evaluating the respiratory-linked radiation therapy using the acquired respiration signal and beam signal; And
Performing any one of evaluation of the treatment efficiency evaluation, treatment accuracy evaluation, and equipment accuracy evaluation of the respiratory-linked radiation therapy using the generated evaluation data; including, respiratory-linked radiation therapy evaluation method.
The method of claim 9,
Determining whether the patient is suitable for respiration-linked radiation therapy using the derived evaluation result, and providing the judgment result to the radiation treatment system; further comprising, evaluating respiratory-linked radiation therapy.
The method of claim 9,
The step of generating the evaluation data,
Respiration-linked radiation therapy evaluation method for generating the evaluation data using any one of respiratory cycle information, average amplitude information, standard deviation information, and crest value information derived from the respiration signal.
The method of claim 11,
The step of generating the evaluation data,
Using any one of the respiratory cycle information, the average amplitude information, the standard deviation information, and the crest value information to generate a baseline shift of the breathing signal, a respiratory-linked radiation therapy evaluation method.
The method of claim 12,
The step of performing the evaluation,
A method for evaluating respiration-linked radiation therapy by comparing an expected margin given when generating a treatment target application of a patient in a radiation treatment plan with an actual margin derived from the baseline shift to perform the treatment accuracy evaluation.
The method of claim 9,
The beam signal includes reference radiation irradiation information set in advance in response to the planned breathing cycle of the patient in the radiation treatment plan, and actual radiation irradiation information performed in response to the actual breathing cycle of the patient acquired in simulated treatment or actual treatment. Comprising, respiratory-associated radiation therapy evaluation method.
The method of claim 14,
The step of generating the evaluation data,
Calculate a reference duty ratio from the reference radiation irradiation information, calculate an actual duty ratio from the actual radiation irradiation information, and then generate the evaluation data,
The step of performing the evaluation,
A respiratory-linked radiation treatment evaluation system for performing a treatment efficiency evaluation of the respiratory-linked radiation treatment using the evaluation data.
The method of claim 14,
The step of generating the evaluation data,
The evaluation data is generated by calculating a radiation irradiation time error using the reference radiation irradiation information and the actual radiation irradiation information,
The step of performing the evaluation,
Comparing a preset error range and the radiation irradiation time error to perform the equipment accuracy evaluation, respiratory interlocked radiation therapy evaluation system.
A computer program stored in a medium to execute any one of the methods of claim 9 to 16 using a computer.

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