RADIABEAM TECHNOLOGIES, LLC — Department of Health and Human Services SBIR Phase II: 102

Description

SignificanceRobotic radiotherapy using extensively non coplanar beams has been shown effective to significantly improve radiation therapy dosimetryleading to improved treatment outcomesHoweverthe current implementation of this technique by CyberKnife is inefficient and not dosimetrically optimalThis has severely limited both the number of patients eligible for robotic radiotherapy and the achievable clinical outcome for those who have been treatedIn order to overcome these limitationsa novel robotic radiotherapy system will be developed that can efficiently utilize the full potential of the non coplanar delivery space to treat the majority of radiotherapy patientsInnovationThe proposed system is highly innovative in the following aspectIntegrated beam orientation and fluence optimizationSignificantly more compact linac to allow posterior beamsFlexible field sizes and MLC resolution to efficiently treat most target sizesVolumetric imaging and real time IGRT will be implementedThis project is proposed to design the hardware and software platforms materializing such a robotic radiotherapy systemIn order to reduce the gantry sizeboth the linac length and the distance between the source and the MLC need to be significantly reducedA newMV source has been designed to reduce linac length and provide the required dose rate for treatmentThe physical MLC leaf thickness cannot be substantially thinner thanmmTo achieve a high MLC resolution at the treatment distancea spacer is used in CyberKnife between the primary collimator and the MLCincreasing the gantry dimensionThis proposed system will eliminate the spacer but vary the focus to tumor distancesFTDto achieve desired field size and MLC resolutionThis requires optimization in an enormous solution spacea capacity uniquely demonstrated by thealgorithmAimsaBuild theMV linac that can producecGy min atcmbMount the linac on an industrial robot and test its mechanical robustnesscIntegrate a micro multi leaf collimatorMLCaDevelop a global optimal direct aperture solution for the static intensity modulated radiotherapyIMRTbDevelop a global volumetric modulated arc therapygVMATsolutioncDevelop a navigation algorithm for the robot to travel and deliver the radiation efficientlyaPerform safety and collision model testbDosimetry end to end testingcQA testImpactSuccessfully achieving these three aims will provide a prototype to prove the feasibility of the versatile robotic system for radiotherapyIt will be scientifically and clinically significantpositioning the system well for further commercial development Success of the proposed project would lead to the development of a novel radiation therapy device capable of significantly reducing the radiation dose deposited to healthy tissue during cancer treatmentThe final clinical system to be developed in Phase II would revolutionize the field of radiation therapy by allowing this precise tumor targeting to be achieved with a quickflexible robotic system enabling high patient throughputThis system is expected to manage a wide range of diseases and treatment fractionsthus having a broad clinical and commercial impact