SCHEDULING GUIDELINES FOR A MULTI-ROOM PROTON THERAPY TREATMENT CENTER

摘要

Proton therapy is a form of radiation therapy with the potential to reduce the amount of radiation exposure received by healthy tissue during the course of cancer treatment. This leads to fewer acute and long-term side effects. Due to the costs involved in constructing a proton therapy facility, there are only 10 facilities operating in the United States currently. These facilities need to treat as many patients as possible, while minimizing the time a patient spends waiting in the system. There are stochastic elements in the treatment time, and planners need to take into account all relevant patient information in constructing a schedule. Important information that is known prior to scheduling includes the design of the treatment plan, residential status of the patient, and special needs of the patient. We simulate the operations of a proton therapy treatment center in order to generate rules to help produce efficient and robust schedules.