Method and apparatus to facilitate administering therapeutic radiation to a heterogeneous body

1. A method to facilitate the administration of therapeutic radiation to a heterogeneous patient volume using a radiation beam source, the method comprising:

determining a cross-sectional size of a radiation beam as corresponds to the radiation beam source;

determining density information corresponding to a body comprising at least one of a phantom and the heterogeneous patient volume;

generating a three-dimensional radiation dose calculation for the body using a control circuit configured as a convolution/superposition based dose calculator using a three-dimensional energy-spreading kernel, wherein the calculator scales total energy released per mass as a function of both the cross-sectional size of the radiation beam and the density information.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the heterogeneous patient volume comprises at least one of:

a patient target volume; and

an organ at risk.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the patient target volume comprises, at least in part, lung tissue.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the calculator scales downwardly the total energy released per mass for portions of the body having a relatively lower density and scales upwardly the total energy released per mass for portions of the body having a relatively higher density.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the calculator is further configured to convolve scaled total energy released per mass information at a given interaction site with a primary kernel for a reference density material.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the calculator is configured to scale the total energy released per mass by using a scaling factor that is modeled as a function of an effective beam size and density at a particular point in the body.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

by the control circuit:

generating a radiation treatment plan as a function, at least in part, of the three-dimensional radiation dose calculation.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising:

administering therapeutic radiation to the heterogeneous patient volume per the radiation treatment plan.

9. An apparatus to facilitate the administration of therapeutic radiation to a heterogeneous patient volume using a radiation beam source, the apparatus comprising:

a memory having stored therein:

a cross-sectional size of a radiation beam as corresponds to the radiation beam source; and

density information corresponding to a body comprising at least one of a phantom and the heterogeneous patient volume;

a control circuit operably coupled to the memory and configured as a convolution/superposition based dose calculator using a three-dimensional energy-spreading kernel to generate a three-dimensional radiation dose calculation for the heterogeneous patient volume, wherein the calculator scales total energy released per mass as a function of both the cross-sectional size of the radiation beam and the density information.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the heterogeneous patient volume comprises at least one of:

a patient target volume; and

an organ at risk.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the patient target volume comprises, at least in part, lung tissue.

12. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the calculator scales downwardly the total energy released per mass for portions of the body having a relatively lower density and scales upwardly the total energy released per mass for portions of the body having a relatively higher density.

13. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the calculator is further configured to convolve scaled total energy released per mass information at a given interaction site with a primary kernel for a reference density material.

14. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the calculator is configured to scale the total energy released per mass by using a scaling factor that is modeled as a function of an effective beam size and density at a particular point in the body.

15. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the control circuit is further configured to:

generate a radiation treatment plan as a function, at least in part, of the three-dimensional radiation dose calculation.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 further comprising:

a radiation treatment platform operably coupled to the control circuit and configured to administer therapeutic radiation to the heterogeneous patient volume per the radiation treatment plan.

17. A non-transitory memory having instructions stored therein, which instructions, when executed by a control circuit, cause the control circuit to:

determine a cross-sectional size of a radiation beam as corresponds to a radiation beam source;

determine density information corresponding to a body comprising at least one of a phantom and a heterogeneous patient volume;

serve as a convolution/superposition based dose calculator using a three-dimensional energy-spreading kernel to generate a three-dimensional radiation dose calculation for the heterogeneous patient volume, wherein the calculator scales total energy released per mass as a function of both the cross-sectional size of the radiation beam and the density information.

18. The non-transitory memory of claim 17 wherein the calculator is configured to scale downwardly the total energy released per mass for portions of the body having a relatively lower density and scale upwardly the total energy released per pass for portions of the body having a relatively higher density.

19. The non-transitory memory of claim 17 wherein the calculator is further configured to convolve scaled total energy released per mass information at a given interaction site with a primary kernel for a reference density material.

20. The non-transitory memory of claim 17 wherein the calculator is configured to scale the total energy released per mass by using a scaling factor that is modeled as a function of an effective beam size and density at a particular point in the body.