Method and apparatus to optimize a radiation treatment plan

1. A method comprising:

by a control circuit:

accessing patient information for a particular patient, radiation treatment information, and information regarding a particular radiation treatment platform that includes at least one multi-leaf collimator;

optimizing a radiation treatment plan to dose at least one treatment volume in the particular patient using the particular radiation treatment platform as a function of the patient information, the radiation treatment information, and the information regarding the particular radiation treatment platform, wherein the optimizing:

does not include optimizing movement of any leaves of the multi-leaf collimator; and

comprises optimizing the radiation treatment plan as a function, at least in part, of monitor unit modulation by optimizing monitor unit modulation as a function of a least one of at least one target coverage metric and at least one normal tissue treatment objective, with monitor units serving as an only parameter that is being optimized using a corresponding cost function.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein optimizing the radiation treatment plan includes outputting a radiation treatment plan that comprises a plurality of conformal arc fields.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein outputting the radiation treatment plan comprises outputting a radiation treatment plan that comprises a plurality of conformal arc fields with variable monitor unit per gantry rotation per control point.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein optimizing the radiation treatment plan comprises optimizing a radiation treatment plan that uses the multi-leaf collimator as well as at least one of at least one jaw and at least one collimator angle to conformally shape a radiation beam with respect to a given field of view of the treatment volume without also using the multi-leaf collimator or the at least one jaw to modulate the radiation beam.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the information regarding a particular radiation treatment platform comprises, at least in part, a set of user-specified treatment arc fields.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the set of user-specified treatment arc fields can include at least two treatment arc fields that have differing isocenters.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the optimizing does not include any cost function as a function of dose that corresponds to movement of any leaves of the multi-leaf collimator, movement of jaw positions, or collimator angle.

8. An apparatus comprising:

a memory having stored therein patient information for a particular patient, radiation treatment information, and information regarding a particular radiation treatment platform that includes at least one multi-leaf collimator;

a control circuit operably coupled to the memory and configured to optimize a radiation treatment plan to dose at least one treatment volume in the particular patient using the particular radiation treatment platform as a function of the patient information, the radiation treatment information, and the information regarding the particular radiation treatment platform, wherein the optimizing:

does not include optimizing movement of any leaves of the multi-leaf collimator; and

comprises optimizing the radiation treatment plan as a function, at least in part, of monitor unit modulation by optimizing monitor unit modulation as a function of a least one of at least one target coverage metric and at least one normal tissue treatment objective, with monitor units serving as an only parameter that is being optimized using a corresponding cost function.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the control circuit is configured to optimize the radiation treatment plan by outputting a radiation treatment plan that comprises a plurality of conformal arc fields.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the control circuit is configured to output the radiation treatment plan by outputting a radiation treatment plan that comprises a plurality of conformal arc fields with variable monitor unit per gantry rotation per control point.

11. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the control circuit is configured to optimize the radiation treatment plan by optimizing a radiation treatment plan that uses the multi-leaf collimator as well as at least one jaw and collimator angle to conformally shape a radiation beam with respect to a given field of view of the treatment volume without also using the multi-leaf collimator or the at least one jaw to modulate the radiation beam.

12. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the information regarding a particular radiation treatment platform comprises, at least in part, a set of user-specified treatment arc fields.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein the set of user-specified treatment arc fields can include at least two treatment arc fields that have differing isocenters.

14. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the control circuit is configured such that the optimizing does not include any cost function as a function of dose that corresponds to movement of any leaves of the multi-leaf collimator, movement of jaw positions, or collimator angle.