Granted Patent B2

US 12,533,530 · App. 18/597,868 · Granted Jan 27, 2026

Inventor: Jonathan Maltz (Houston, TX)

Assignee: SHANGHAI UNITED IMAGING HEALTHCARE CO., LTD.

A61N5/1067A61N5/1049A61N5/1068G06T7/0016G06T7/215G06T11/005A61N2005/1051A61N2005/1052A61N2005/1059

Abstract

Claims (53)

1 . A method for emission-guided radiation therapy (EGRT), comprising:

obtaining reference images of a region of interest (ROI) of a subject who receives a radiation treatment, wherein the subject is injected with a radioactive tracer or implanted with a radioactive marker before the radiation treatment, the ROI undergoes a physiological motion during the radiation treatment, and each of the reference images corresponds to one of a plurality of motion phases of the ROI and is indicative of a distribution of the radioactive tracer or the radioactive maker in the ROI at a corresponding motion phase;

obtaining a target image of the ROI indicative of a distribution of the radioactive tracer or the radioactive maker in the ROI during the radiation treatment; and

adaptively adjusting, based on the reference images and the target image, the delivery of a radiation beam with respect to the physiological motion of the ROI during the radiation treatment.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the adaptively adjusting, based on the reference images and the target image, the delivery of a radiation beam with respect to the physiological motion of the ROI during the radiation treatment comprises:

determining, based on a comparison of the target image and each of the reference images, a target position of the ROI during the acquisition of the target image; and

adjusting, based on the target position of the ROI, the delivery of the radiation beam.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the determining a target position of the ROI comprises:

obtaining an image sequence relating to the ROI, the image sequence being reconstructed based on image data acquired in a scan of the subject, each image in the image sequence representing one motion phase of the plurality of motion phases and corresponding to a reference image of the same motion phase;

selecting, among the reference images, a reference image that matches the target image; and

determining, based on the image corresponding to the selected reference image in the image sequence, the target position of the ROI.

4 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the target image includes a first target image of the ROI from a first view and a second target image of the ROI from a second view, the reference images include a first set of reference images corresponding to the plurality of motion phases of the ROI from a same view as the first view and a second set of reference images corresponding to the plurality of motion phases of the ROI from a same view as the second view, and the determining a target position of the ROI comprises:

obtaining an image sequence relating to the ROI, the image sequence being reconstructed based on image data acquired in a scan of the subject, each image in the image sequence representing one motion phase of the plurality of motion phases;

determining, among the first set of reference images, a first selected reference image that matches the first target image;

determining, among the second set of reference images, a second selected reference image that matches the second target image;

in response to determining that the first selected reference image and the second selected reference image correspond to a same motion phase of the ROI, determining the target position of the ROI based on the image corresponding to the same motion phase in the image sequence.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the obtaining reference images of the ROI comprises:

obtaining an image sequence relating to the ROI, the image sequence being reconstructed based on image data acquired in a scan on the subject, each image in the image sequence representing one motion phase of the plurality of motion phases and corresponding to a reference image of the same motion phase; and

generating, based on the image sequence, the reference images of the ROI according to a simulation algorithm.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the radiation beam is a particle beam, and the method further comprises:

determining, based on the target image, a position of a Bragg peak of the particle beam; and

evaluating, based on the position of the Bragg peak, the delivery of the treatment session.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the target image is captured by at least one scintillation camera that is directed at the ROI during the radiation treatment and configured to detect single photons from annihilation photon pairs produced by interactions between the radioactive tracer or the radioactive marker and the subject.

8 . The method of claim 7 , further comprising:

determining, based on a trajectory of the radiation beam, a position of the at least one scintillation camera, wherein the at least one scintillation camera is placed at the determined position during the radiation treatment.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the reference images of the ROI are captured by at least one scintillation camera that is directed at the ROI during a scan of the subject before the radiation treatment, and

the target image is captured by the at least one scintillation camera during the radiation treatment.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the reference images are simulated images generated according to a simulation algorithm before the radiation treatment, and the target image is captured by the at least one scintillation camera during the radiation treatment.

11 . A system for emission-guided radiation therapy (EGRT), comprising:

a scintillation camera directed at a region of interest (ROI) of a subject who is receiving a radiation treatment, wherein the subject is injected with a positron emission tomography (PET) radioactive tracer or implanted with a PET radioactive marker before the radiation treatment, the ROI undergoes a physiological motion during the radiation treatment, and the scintillation camera is configured to detect single photons from annihilation photon pairs produced by interactions between the PET radioactive tracer or the PET radioactive marker and the subject; and

a processing device configured to adaptively adjust, based on the single photons detected by the scintillation camera instead of coincidence events produced by the interactions, the delivery of the radiation treatment with respect to the physiological motion of the ROI.

12 . The system of claim 11 , the at least one scintillation camera includes one scintillation camera.

13 . The system of claim 12 , wherein the scintillation camera is mounted at a position, at which an angle between a trajectory of the radiation beam and a line connecting the scintillation camera and an isocenter of a radiotherapy device is equal to 90 degrees.

14 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the at least one scintillation camera includes two scintillation cameras mounted at their respective positions at which an angle between a trajectory of the radiation beam and a line connecting each scintillation camera and an isocenter of a radiotherapy device is equal to 45 degrees.

15 . The system of claim 11 , wherein to adaptively adjust, based on the single photons detected by the scintillation camera, the delivery of the radiation treatment with respect to the physiological motion of the ROI, the processing device is configured to:

obtain a plurality of reference images of the ROI corresponding to a plurality of motion phases of the ROI, each of the reference images being indicative of a distribution of the PET radioactive tracer or the PET radioactive maker in the ROI at a corresponding motion phase; and

adaptively adjust, based on the single photons detected by the scintillation camera and the plurality of reference images, the delivery of a radiation beam with respect to the physiological motion of the ROI.

16 . The system of claim 15 , wherein to adaptively adjust, based on the single photons detected by the scintillation camera and the plurality of reference images, the delivery of a radiation beam with respect to the physiological motion of the ROI, the processing device is configured to:

generate, based on the single photons detected by the scintillation camera, a target image of the ROI indicative of a distribution of the radioactive tracer or the radioactive maker in the ROI during the radiation treatment; and

adaptively adjust, based on the plurality of reference images and the target image, the delivery of the radiation beam with respect to the physiological motion of the ROI during the radiation treatment.

17 . The system of claim 16 , wherein to adaptively adjust, based on the plurality of reference images and the target image, the delivery of the radiation beam with respect to the physiological motion of the ROI during the radiation treatment, the processing device is configured to:

determine, based on a comparison of the target image and each of the plurality of reference images, a target position of the ROI during the acquisition of the target image; and

adjust, based on the target position of the ROI, the delivery of the radiation beam.

18 . The system of claim 17 , wherein to determine a target position of the ROI, the processing device is configured to:

obtain an image sequence relating to the ROI, the image sequence being reconstructed based on image data acquired in a scan of the subject, each image in the image sequence representing one motion phase of the plurality of motion phases and corresponding to a reference image of the same motion phase;

select, among the reference images, a reference image that matches the target image; and

determine, based on the image corresponding to the selected reference image in the image sequence, the target position of the ROI.

19 . The system of claim 17 , wherein the target image includes a first target image of the ROI from a first view and a second target image of the ROI from a second view, the reference images include a first set of reference images corresponding to the plurality of motion phases of the ROI from a same view as the first view and a second set of reference images corresponding to the plurality of motion phases of the ROI from a same view as the second view, and to determine a target position of the ROI, the processing device is configured to:

obtain an image sequence relating to the ROI, the image sequence being reconstructed based on image data acquired in a scan of the subject, each image in the image sequence representing one motion phase of the plurality of motion phases;

determine, among the first set of reference images, a first selected reference image that matches the first target image;

determine, among the second set of reference images, a second selected reference image that matches the second target image;

in response to determining that the first selected reference image and the second selected reference image correspond to a same motion phase of the ROI, determine the target position of the ROI based on the image corresponding to the same motion phase in the image sequence.

20 . The system of claim 15 , wherein the reference images of the ROI are captured by at least one scintillation camera that is directed at the ROI during a scan of the subject before the radiation treatment, or the reference images are simulated images generated according to a simulation algorithm before the radiation treatment.

Assignments (2)

Continuity (3)

References Cited (16)