Dose smearing effect modeling for radiation treatment plan

1. A computer implemented method of developing a radiation treatment plan comprising spot scanning of a treatment target, said method comprising:

accessing information associated with a patient and information pertaining to a radiation delivery machine;

determining an area associated with the treatment target, wherein the area comprises a plurality of spots;

computing a weighting for each spot of the plurality of spots, wherein the weighting is associated with a number of protons delivered at a respective spot;

computing timing related parameters based on information retrieved from the radiation delivery machine; and

determining a transition dose delivered by the radiation delivery machine during a transition from one spot to another spot when irradiating the treatment target under the radiation treatment plan.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

determining a spot dose for each spot of the plurality of spots; and

computing a total dose distribution for the radiation treatment plan by accumulating a spot dose determined for each spot of the plurality of spots and a transition dose determined for each transition from one spot to another during the irradiating under the treatment plan.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining the transition dose comprises determining a transmission dose matrix by modeling a line associated with the transition from the one spot to the another spot as a series of finite spots.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining the transition dose comprises determining a transmission dose matrix by modeling a line associated with the transition from the one spot to the another spot as a summation of a series of infinite spots.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining the transition dose comprises:

modeling a line associated with the transition from the one spot to the another spot as a summation of a series of infinite spots; and

performing a statistical computation to determine a transition dose matrix associated with the transition dose.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the statistical computation is a Monte Carlo calculation.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

determining a spot dose for each spot of the plurality of spots; and

computing a total dose distribution for the radiation treatment plan by accumulating a spot dose determined for each spot of the plurality of spots and a transition dose determined for each transition from one spot to another during the irradiating, wherein the total dose distribution depends on a pattern followed by the radiation delivery machine during the irradiating.

8. A computer system comprising a processor coupled to a bus and memory coupled to said bus, wherein said memory is programmed with instructions that when executed cause said computer system to implement a method of developing a radiation treatment plan comprising spot scanning of a treatment target, wherein said method comprises:

accessing information associated with a patient and information pertaining to a radiation delivery machine;

determining an area associated with the treatment target, wherein the area comprises a plurality of spots;

computing a weighting for each spot of the plurality of spots, wherein the weighting is associated with a number of protons delivered at a respective spot;

computing timing related parameters based on information retrieved from the radiation delivery machine;

computing a dose delivered at each spot of the plurality of spots; and

determining a plurality of transition doses delivered by the radiation delivery machine, wherein the plurality of transition doses comprise a radiation delivered during each transition from one spot to another spot when irradiating the treatment target under the radiation treatment plan.

9. The computer system of claim 8 , wherein the method further comprises:

determining a total dose distribution by summing up the plurality of transition doses with the dose delivered at each respective spot of the plurality of spots.

10. The computer system of claim 8 , wherein the determining the plurality of transition doses comprises determining a transmission dose matrix for each transition by modeling a line associated with a respective transition as a series of finite spots.

11. The computer system of claim 8 , wherein the determining the plurality of transition doses comprises determining a transmission dose matrix for each transition by modeling a line associated with a respective transition as a summation of a series of infinite spots.

12. The computer system of claim 8 , wherein the determining the plurality of transition doses comprises:

modeling a line associated with each transition as a summation of a series of infinite spots; and

performing a statistical computation to determine a transition dose matrix associated with each transition.

13. The computer system of claim 8 , wherein the statistical computation is a Monte Carlo calculation.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions for causing a computer system to perform a method of developing a radiation treatment plan comprising spot scanning of a treatment target, the method comprising:

accessing information associated with a patient and information pertaining to a radiation delivery machine;

determining an area associated with the treatment target, wherein the area comprises a plurality of spots;

computing a weighting for each spot of the plurality of spots, wherein the weighting is associated with a number of protons delivered at a respective spot;

computing timing related parameters based on information retrieved from the radiation delivery machine; and

determining a transition dose delivered by the radiation delivery machine during a transition between spots when irradiating the treatment target under the treatment plan.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 , wherein the method further comprises:

determining a spot dose for each spot of the plurality of spots; and

computing a total dose distribution for the radiation treatment plan by accumulating a spot dose determined for each spot of the plurality of spots and a transition dose determined for each transition between spots during the irradiating.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 , wherein the determining the transition dose comprises determining a transmission dose matrix by modeling a line associated with the transition between spots as a series of finite spots.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 , wherein the determining the transition dose comprises determining a transmission dose matrix by modeling a line associated with the transition between spots as a summation of a series of infinite spots.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 , wherein the determining the transition dose comprises:

modeling a line associated with the transition as a summation of a series of infinite spots; and

performing a statistical computation to determine a transition dose matrix associated with the transition dose.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18 , wherein the statistical computation is a Monte Carlo calculation.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 , wherein the method further comprises:

determining a spot dose for each spot of the plurality of spots; and

computing a total dose distribution for the radiation treatment plan by accumulating a spot dose determined for each spot of the plurality of spots and a transition dose determined for each transition between spots during the irradiating, wherein the total dose distribution depends on a pattern followed by the radiation delivery machine during the irradiating.