Optimization of external beam radiation therapy

Aluno: Vinicius Jameli

Teletherapy is a cancer treatment that uses ionizing radiation to extinguish tumor cells. These
ionizing particles are delivered via a linear accelerator, an instrument that rotates around the
patient distributing radiation at every feasible angle. The treatment’s goal is to use the smallest
dose required to eliminate the tumour while sparing healthy organs. To accomplish this, the linear
accelerator incorporates a tool called Multileaf Collimator (MLC ), a set of moving blades that
assumes the format of the radiation field to match the borders of the target tumor. In 2003, Allen
Holder presented a linear programming model for the dosage delivery problem [2], which calculates
the MLC ’s optimal arrangement for each treatment angle. However, the implemented data to test
the model was a single handmade image for each plan, expected to be interpreted as an X-Ray.
This project aims to validate Holder’s model with CT scans of real patients using the dataset
TROTS [1] and introduce solution analysis tools used by medical physicists.