TREATMENT PLANNING FOR HEAVY-ION RADIOTHERAPY

A computerized treatment planning system based on quantitative information in computerized tomographic (CT) scans has been developed for the heavy ion radiotherapy trials at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. The CT number of each pixel is converted to a water equivalent length and used in the calculation of isoeffect dose distributions from multiport heavy charged particle irradiation. The water equivalent length of pixels in the beam path has also been histogrammed and used in quantitatively studying the range shortening effects by inhomogeneities. Treatment plans for representative lesions of the pelvis, abdomen, and thorax are presented. © 1979.