Examination of the effect of increasing the number of radiation beams on a radiation treatment plan.
Within the confines of least-squares operations, it is possible to quantify the effect of the addition of treatment fields or beamlets to a treatment plan. Using linear algebra and eigenvalue perturbation theory, the effect of the increase in number of treatments is shown to be equivalent to adding a perturbation operator. The effect of adding additional fields will be negligible if the perturbation operator is small. The correspondence of this approach to an earlier work in beam-orientation optimization is also demonstrated. Results are presented for prostate, spinal and head and neck cases, and the connection to beam-orientation optimization is examined.
Crooks
Steven M
SM
Stanford University Medical Center, Stanford, CA 94305-5304, USA.
Pugachev
Andrei
A
King
Christopher
C
Xing
Lei
L
D004307:Dose-Response Relationship, Radiation; D006258:Head and Neck Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015233:Models, Statistical; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy; D011878:Radiotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D011880:Radiotherapy Planning, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*