Assessment and improvement of treatment using imaging of physiological responses to radiation therapy

1. A method comprising:

receiving at least one MRI scan image;

comparing, based at least on the at least one MRI scan image, a subsequent edema analysis performed after or during at least part of a course of radiation treatment to a baseline edema analysis, performed previous to the subsequent edema analysis, to estimate a change in edema in patient tissue resulting from the at least part of the course of radiation treatment, the course of radiation treatment having at least a first treatment fraction, a second treatment fraction, and a third treatment fraction, the comparing comprising:

quantifying changes in free hydrogen content in the patient tissue as a proxy for the change in edema by at least performing a differential analysis of the baseline edema analysis, based on a first MRI scan image of the at least one MRI scan image, and the subsequent edema analysis, based on a second MRI scan image of the at least one MRI scan image, to derive a relative amount of free hydrogen as a function of location in the patient tissue;

quantifying actual damage in the patient tissue based on the change in edema, the quantifying comprising:

deriving an edema to delivered dose correlation based at least in part on the change in edema in the patient tissue correlated with a delivered dose of radiation during the course of radiation treatment before the third treatment fraction; and

increasing or reducing an amount of radiation delivered in the third treatment fraction based on the edema to delivered dose correlation.

2. A method as in claim 1 , wherein the at least one MRI scan image comprises at least one of: a T 1 -weighted MRI scan image, a T 2 -weighted MRI scan image, a ratio of T 1 -weighted MRI to T 2 -weighted MRI scan image results, and an MRI response ratio.

3. A method as in claim 1 , wherein the deriving of the edema to delivered dose correlation comprises applying one or more calculations or models of physical dose delivery to derive one or more of an amount of radiation actually delivered to the patient tissue and an expected amount of radiation delivered to the patient tissue.

4. A method as in claim 3 , wherein the derived amount of radiation actually delivered or expected to have been delivered to the patient tissue is based at least in part on one or more inputs, the one or more inputs comprising at least one of a pre-radiation treatment plan and a combined MRI and radiation delivery approach that calculates received doses of radiation based on intra-fraction motions of the patient tissue.

5. A method as in claim 1 , further comprising correlating the change in edema in the patient tissue with the delivered dose, the correlating comprising quantifying how the change in edema corresponds to an expected outcome for the diseased tissue and surrounding tissue relative to an expected value.

6. A method as in claim 1 , further comprising performing one or more clinical actions based on the edema to delivered dose correlation, the one or more clinical actions comprising at least one of: stopping the course of radiation treatment for further analysis, and alerting a clinician.

7. A system comprising:

at least one programmable processor; and

a non-transient machine-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one programmable processor, cause the at least one programmable processor to perform operations comprising:

receiving at least one MRI scan image;

comparing, based at least on the at least one MRI scan image, a subsequent edema analysis performed after or during at least part of a course of radiation treatment to a baseline edema analysis, performed previous to the subsequent edema analysis, to estimate a change in edema in patient tissue resulting from the at least part of the course of radiation treatment, the course of radiation treatment having at least a first treatment fraction, a second treatment fraction, and a third treatment fraction, the comparing comprising:

quantifying changes in free hydrogen content in the patient tissue as a proxy for the change in edema by at least performing a differential analysis of the baseline edema analysis, based on a first MRI scan image of the at least one MRI scan image, and the subsequent edema analysis, based on a second MRI scan image of the at least one MRI scan image, to derive a relative amount of free hydrogen as a function of location in the patient tissue;

quantifying actual damage in the patient tissue based on the change in edema, the quantifying comprising:

deriving an edema to delivered dose correlation based at least in part on the change in edema in the patient tissue correlated with a delivered dose of radiation during the course of radiation treatment before the third treatment fraction; and

increasing or reducing an amount of radiation delivered in the third treatment fraction based on the edema to delivered dose correlation.

8. A system as in claim 7 , wherein the at least one MRI scan image comprises at least one of: a T 1 -weighted MRI scan image, a T 2 -weighted MRI scan image, a ratio of T 1 -weighted MRI to T 2 -weighted MRI scan image results, and an MRI response ratio.

9. A system as in claim 7 , wherein the deriving of the edema to delivered dose correlation comprises applying one or more calculations or models of physical dose delivery to derive one or more of an amount of radiation actually delivered to the patient tissue and an expected amount of radiation delivered to the patient tissue.

10. A system as in claim 9 , wherein the derived amount of radiation actually delivered or expected to have been delivered to the patient tissue is based at least in part on one or more inputs, the one or more inputs comprising at least one of a pre-radiation treatment plan and a combined MRI and radiation delivery approach that calculates received doses of radiation based on intra-fraction motions of the patient tissue.

11. A system as in claim 7 , wherein the operations further comprise correlating the change in edema in the patient tissue with the delivered dose, the correlating comprising quantifying how the change in edema corresponds to an expected outcome for the diseased tissue and surrounding tissue relative to an expected value.

12. A system as in claim 7 , further comprising performing one or more clinical actions based on the edema to delivered dose correlation, the one or more clinical actions comprising at least one of: stopping the course of radiation treatment for further analysis, and alerting a clinician.

13. A system as in claim 7 , further comprising at least one of:

a radiation source that produces one or more treatment beams for use in the radiation therapy, the one or more treatment beams comprising one or more of a proton beam, a heavy ion beam, a neutron beam, a gamma radiation beam, a beta radiation beam, an alpha radiation beam, an ionizing radiation beam, and an x-ray beam; and

an MRI device in communication with the hardware, the MRI device generating MRI scans used in the subsequent edema analysis and the baseline edema analysis.

14. A computer program product comprising a non-transient machine-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one programmable processor to perform operations comprising:

receiving at least one MRI scan image;

comparing, based at least on the at least one MRI scan image, a subsequent edema analysis performed after or during at least part of a course of radiation treatment to a baseline edema analysis, performed previous to the subsequent edema analysis, to estimate a change in edema in patient tissue resulting from the at least part of the course of radiation treatment, the course of radiation treatment having at least a first treatment fraction, a second treatment fraction, and a third treatment fraction, the comparing comprising:

quantifying changes in free hydrogen content in the patient tissue as a proxy for the change in edema by at least performing a differential analysis of the baseline edema analysis, based on a first MRI scan image of the at least one MRI scan image, and the subsequent edema analysis, based on a second MRI scan image of the at least one MRI scan image, to derive a relative amount of free hydrogen as a function of location in the patient tissue;

quantifying actual damage in the patient tissue based on the change in edema, the quantifying comprising:

deriving an edema to delivered dose correlation based at least in part on the change in edema in the patient tissue correlated with a delivered dose of radiation during the course of radiation treatment before the third treatment fraction; and

increasing or reducing an amount of radiation delivered in the third treatment fraction based on the edema to delivered dose correlation.

15. A computer program product as in claim 14 , wherein the at least one MRI scan image comprises at least one of: a T 1 -weighted MRI scan image, a T 2 -weighted MRI scan image, a ratio of T 1 -weighted MRI to T 2 -weighted MRI scan image results, and an MRI response ratio.

16. A computer program product as in claim 14 , wherein the deriving of the edema to delivered dose correlation comprises applying one or more calculations or models of physical dose delivery to derive one or more of an amount of radiation actually delivered to the patient tissue and an expected amount of radiation delivered to the patient tissue.

17. A computer program product as in claim 16 , wherein the derived amount of radiation actually delivered or expected to have been delivered to the patient tissue is based at least in part on one or more inputs, the one or more inputs comprising at least one of a pre-radiation treatment plan and a combined MRI and radiation delivery approach that calculates received doses of radiation based on intra-fraction motions of the patient tissue.

18. A method as in claim 1 , wherein the baseline edema analysis occurs prior to the course of radiation treatment.