Radiotherapy Treatment Planning

This volume contains an in depth examination of many of the complex issues associated with planning and optimisation of intensity modulated radiotherapy treatment. The book is divided into five parts: a presentation of current practice, techniques and equipment used by medical physicists and others to deliver radiotherapy treatment; a systems modelling approach is used in the formulation of a beam model for the purpose of optimisation, describing the effect of X-rays on human body tissues whilst taking all the relevant factors into account; a deterministic approach to the inverse problem in radiotherapy, based on weighted iterative least squares is modified to allow an adaptive scaling of the error to improve the performance of a general least squares algorithm; a guided random search methodology, based on genetic algorithms which is specifically aimed at solving multi-objective optimisation problems is developed to optimise beam weight/wedge angle as well as coplanar beam orientation; the overall approach developed is demonstrated practically using both traditional and modern measurement techniques such as film and more modern techniques such as gel dosimeter. The work is essential for all those involved in the broad area of medical engineering, and will be an invaluable addition to libraries, institutions and for students of the subject at all levels. Advances in Industrial Control aims to report and encourage the transfer of technology in control engineering. The rapid development of control technology has an impact on all areas of the control discipline. The series offers an opportunity for researchers to present an extended exposition of new work in all aspects of industrial control.