Varian Medical Systems, Inc.

Varian Medical Systems International Ag

Mika Miettinen

Ross Bernald Hannibal

Mu Young Lee

Juha Kauppinen

Joakim Pyyry

Stefan J Thieme-Marti

Andres Graf

Jeff Everett

A photon source emits a flattening filter-free photon beam. A control circuit operably couples to a multi-layer multi-leaf collimator that is disposed between the photon source and a treatment area of a patient. The control circuit automatically arranges operation of some, but not all, of the layers of the multi-layer multi-leaf collimator to serve as a virtual flattening filter with respect to the flattening filter-free photon beam emitted by the photon source. By one approach, another of the layers of the multi-layer multi-leaf collimator serves to form a treatment aperture corresponding to a shape of the treatment area of the patient. By one approach the control circuit comprises an integral part of a treatment platform (as versus a dedicated treatment planning platform) and can carry out most or even essentially all of the planning steps that lead to administration of the treatment to a patient.

Method and apparatus for using a multi-layer multi-leaf collimator as a virtual flattening filter

A radiation-treatment plan to treat a treatment target in a given patient takes into account imaging-based dosing of that patient by, for example, automatically accounting for radiation dosing of the given patient that results from imaging to determine at least one physical position of the given patient when forming the radiation-treatment plan. These teachings are particularly beneficial when applied in application settings where the aforementioned imaging comprises obtaining images using megavoltage-sourced radiation. By one approach these teachings provide for automatically accounting for radiation dosing of the given patient that results from imaging by, at least in part, automatically adjusting therapeutic dosing of the given patient as a function of the radiation dosing of the given patient that results from such imaging.

Accounting for imaging-based radiation doses

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San Fransicso, CA, United States of America

Mika Miettinen