BIOLOGY GUIDED ADAPTIVE THERAPY PLANNING
A therapy system ( 100 ) includes an imager ( 102 ), a therapy planner ( 104 ), and a therapy device ( 106 ). The therapy planner ( 104 ) includes a therapy prescription apparatus ( 118 ) which calculates a desired therapy (D) to be applied to a human patient or other subject. The therapy prescription system ( 118 ) uses a pathology model ( 122 ) and a patient-specific biological parameter history ( 124 ) to optimize the applied therapy.
1 . A therapy prescription apparatus which uses a pathology model and a subject-specific biological parameter history to establish a desired therapy to be applied to the subject, wherein the pathology model models a response of a pathology to a therapy and the biological parameter history includes a biological parameter value obtained from a functional imaging examination of the subject.
2 . The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the apparatus iteratively adjusts the desired therapy based on an observed response to an applied therapy.
3 . The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the apparatus iteratively adjusts the desired therapy until a measured biological parameter value reaches a desired value.
4 . The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the pathology model is an empirically derived model indicative of the responses of a subject population to a therapy of the type to be applied.
5 . The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the pathology model models a change in the biological parameter value as a function of time.
6 . The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the subject-specific biological parameter history includes a plurality of spatially varying biological parameter values.
7 . The apparatus of claim 1 including a functional imager.
8 . The apparatus of claim 1 including a therapy computation apparatus which computes a therapy to be applied by a therapy device.
9 . The apparatus of claim 8 including a therapy device in operative electrical communication with the therapy computation apparatus.
10 . (canceled)
11 . The apparatus of claim 1 including a graphical user interface which presents information indicative of the desired therapy to a human user.
12 . A therapy prescription method including using a pathology model and a subject-specific biological parameter history to establish a desired therapy to be applied to the subject, wherein the pathology model models a response of a pathology to a therapy and the biological parameter history includes spatially varying biological parameter values obtained from a functional imaging examination of the subject.
13 . The method of claim 12 including
obtaining a biological parameter value from a functional imaging examination of the subject conducted after an application of the desired therapy; and
repeating the step of using a pathology model.
14 . The method of claim 12 including comparing the obtained biological parameter value to a desired value.
15 . The method of claim 12 wherein the desired therapy includes a dose and a treatment interval.
16 . The method of claim 12 wherein the desired therapy includes a fractionated therapy.
17 . The method of claim 12 wherein the desired therapy includes the application of thermal, radio frequency, or sonic energy.
18 . The method of claim 12 wherein the desired therapy includes a molecular therapy or a chemotherapy.
19 . The method of claim 12 wherein the pathology model includes an analytical model.
20 . The method of claim 12 wherein the pathology model includes a multi-dimensional histogram.
21 . The method of claim 12 including communicating information indicative of the desired therapy to a therapy device over an electrical communication interface.
22 . A therapy prescription apparatus which calculates a therapy to be applied to a pathology based on:
a desired biological parameter value;
measured values of the biological parameter; and
a pathology model which models the response of a pathology to a therapy,
wherein the biological parameter is measured following the application of a therapy to the pathology and the measured values include spatially varying biological parameter values.
23 . The apparatus of claim 22 wherein the therapy includes an external radiotherapy.
24 . The apparatus of claim 22 wherein the calculated therapy includes a spatially varying dose.
25 . The apparatus of claim 22 wherein the apparatus calculates the therapy based on a patient specific biological parameter history.
26 . (canceled)
27 . (canceled)
28 . The apparatus of claim 22 including a computer readable memory containing data indicative of the responses of a patient population to a therapy of the type to be applied.
29 . A computer readable storage medium containing instructions which, when carried out by a computer, cause the computer to carry out a method which includes using a desired biological parameter value, a subject-specific measured biological parameter history, and a pathology model to establish a desired therapy to be applied to a pathology of the subject.
30 . The computer readable storage medium of claim 29 wherein the biological parameter value is indicative of radiosensitivity or a proliferation of the pathology.
31 . (canceled)
32 . An apparatus comprising:
a therapy planning system which establishes a characteristic of successive therapies applied to a subject as a function of a desired biological parameter value of the subject, a subject specific biological parameter history indicative of a pathology of the subject, and a pathology model which models response of the pathology to a therapy;
a therapy device operatively electrically connected to the therapy planning system so as to receive the established characteristic, and wherein the therapy device applies a therapy according to the established characteristic.
33 . (canceled)
34 . The apparatus of claim 32 wherein the characteristic includes a dose.
35 . The apparatus of claim 34 wherein the characteristic includes a type of therapy.
36 . The apparatus of claim 35 wherein the type of therapy includes at least one of a radiation and a chemical therapy.
37 . The apparatus of claim 32 wherein the subject specific biological parameter history includes information from a functional imaging examination of the subject.
38 . (canceled)
39 . A method comprising:
obtaining data representative of a measured response of a patient population to an applied therapy, the data including a first measured biological parameter value, the applied therapy, and a second measured biological parameter value representative of a response to the applied therapy, wherein the first and second measured biological parameter values are obtained from functional imaging examinations of members of the subject population;
storing the data in a computer readable storage medium;
making the data available to a therapy planning system over a computer network.
40 . (canceled)
41 . (canceled)
42 . The method of claim 39 wherein the data includes the measured responses of each of a plurality of members of the patient population to an applied therapy.
43 . (canceled)