Development of mmWave technology for safe radiation treatment delivery

ABSTRACT Radiation therapy offers cures to cancer patients but also is prone to error.

Although the radiation oncology society sets up strict quality assurance and safety procedures to prevent treatment errors, they are difficult to follow on every treatment due to time, labor cost and other constraints. Automation is highly desired to improve treatment safety.

The millimeter-wave (mmWave), which has been broadly employed to detect the collision and prevent an accident before it happens, can penetrate the patient?s clothing, immobilization device and tabletop, detect patient?s position automatically.

Multiple mmWave devices may be installed in the treatment room, verify setup and detect patient motion automatically when integrated with treatment control software. The low-cost mmWave can potentially eliminate many major treatment errors without increasing labor costs.

The nonionizing mmWave can also monitor the patient?s motion continuously and detect any intrafraction motion during treatment delivery.

To achieve this goal, we will perform a study to achieve the following specific aims (SAs) -- SA1: Develop mmWave algorithms that can measure the absolute distance to the patient surface, and SA2: To develop and validate the mmWave technology to monitor a patient?s movement and breathing during RT delivery.