A METHOD OF GENERATING A RADIOTHERAPY TREATMENT PLAN, COMPUTER PROGRAM AND COMPUTER SYSTEM FOR GENERATING A RADIOTHERAPY TREATMENT PLAN, AND RADIOTHERAPY DELIVERY SYSTEM

摘要

A method of optimizing a radiotherapy treatment plan for delivering charged particles to a patient by pencil beam scanning, involves optimizing the treatment plan using an optimization problem that is designed to allow spots to differ in at least one of shape and orientation, and optionally also in size. This enables the optimization spots so as to cover the target in the best possible way and with a sharp penumbra along the outer edges of the target. The invention also relates to a computer program product and a computer system for use in such planning and a treatment delivery system for delivering such a plan.