Systems and methods for real-time target validation for image-guided radiation therapy

1. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium upon which is embodied a sequence of programmed instructions, which when executed by a computer processing system, causes the computer processing system to:

obtain images generated by irradiating a target volume with radiation beams at a series of projection angles;

determine trajectories of radiation beams through the target volume from the generated images;

determine a measure of correlation between the determined beam trajectories and reference beam trajectories, the reference beam trajectories having been obtained from reference images of the target volume at the series of projection angles; and

evaluate the measure of correlation over the series of projection angles in order to determine a change in the measure of correlation,

wherein a change in the measure of correlation above a threshold indicates a target volume displacement and/or radiation dose delivery error.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein the measure of correlation further includes a measure of similarity between locations of the radiation beam energies in the generated and the reference images.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein the measure of correlation includes a measure of similarity between the radiation beam trajectories in a 3D target volume reconstructed from the generated images and a 3D target volume reconstructed from the reference images.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 3 , wherein the 3D reconstruction includes reconstructing in real-time the 3D target volume using a compressive sensing technique.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein the measure of correlation further includes a measure of similarity between the radiation dose distribution in the target volume as determined from the generated and the reference images.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein the measure of correlation further includes a measure of similarity between the total radiation dose in the target volume determined from the generated images and total radiation dose determined from the reference images.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein when the change exceeds the threshold, the computer processing system generates a feedback signal to notify an operator of the displacement and/or to automatically stop irradiation.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein the change is determined using a compressive sensing technique, wherein the compressive sensing technique uses a minimum number of projection images to determine the change.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8 , wherein the compressive sensing technique uses a previously determined minimum number of projection images.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 4 , wherein the computer processing system is further caused to validate a spatial position and orientation of the target volume based on the reconstructed 3D target volume.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium upon which is embodied a sequence of programmed instructions to validate a radiation treatment, which when executed by a computer processing system, causes the computer processing system to:

instruct a radiation system to generate a series of images of a target volume exposed to the radiation treatment;

determine trajectories of the radiation beams through the target volume from the generated images;

compare the generated images with corresponding reference images of the target volume to determine a measure of correlation between the generated and reference images, the measure of correlation including a measure of similarity between the radiation beam trajectories determined from the generated images and beam trajectories determined from the reference images;

evaluate the measure of correlation over a series of projection angles between the generated and reference images in order to determine a change in the measure of correlation, and thereby corroborate a series of radiation beam trajectories,

wherein a change in the measure of correlation above a threshold indicates a target volume displacement and/or radiation dose delivery error, and

wherein when the change is above the threshold, a feedback signal is generated to either automatically turn off the radiation treatment or to alert an operator of the change.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11 , wherein the computer processing system is further caused to reconstruct in real-time a 3D target volume using a compressive sensing technique, and validate a spatial position and orientation of the target volume based on the reconstructed 3D target volume.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11 , wherein the measure of correlation includes a measure of similarity between the radiation dose distribution in the target volume as determined from the generated and the reference images.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11 , wherein the measure of correlation includes a measure of similarity between the total radiation dose in the target volume determined from the generated images and the total radiation dose in the target volume determined from the reference images.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11 , wherein the change is determined using a compressive sensing technique, wherein the compressive sensing technique uses a previously determined minimum number of projection images.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium upon which is embodied a sequence of programmed instructions, which when executed by a computer processing system, causes the computer processing system to:

validate administration of a therapeutic radiation beam to a target based on a determination made during a treatment session of a change in a parameter of the target,

the determination being performed based on a comparison between target projection images generated during the treatment using the therapeutic radiation beam and corresponding reference images,

the comparison including comparing radiation beam trajectories determined from the images generated during treatment and radiation beam trajectories generated from the reference images,

wherein a determination of a change in the parameter above a threshold indicates a target volume displacement and/or radiation dose delivery error.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16 , wherein the parameter includes one of a target spatial position and orientation, beam trajectory through the target, and radiation beam energy deposited in the target.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17 , wherein the determination includes comparing the target projection images with corresponding previously obtained projection images and computing similarity measures between the images using a compressive sensing computation algorithm.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18 , wherein the comparing and computing are continually performed during the treatment session.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16 , wherein the computer processing system is further caused to generate a feedback signal upon determining a change in the parameter, wherein the adjustment is made in response to the feedback signal.