Optimal Treatment Planning in Radiotherapy Based on Boltzmann Transport Calculations
M. Frank (University of Kaiserslautern, Germany) and M. Herty (University of Kaiserslautern, Germany)
Mathematical modeling of cancer growth and therapy has received increasing attention in recent years. The use of ionizing radiation is one of the main tools in the therapy of cancer. The aim of radiation treatment is to deposit enough energy in cancer cells so that they are destroyed. On the other hand, healthy tissue around the cancer cells should be harmed as little as possible.Furthermore, some regions at risk, like the spinal chord, should receive almost no radiation at all. Most dose calculation algorithms in clinical use rely on the Fermi-Eyges theory of radiation which is insufficient at inhomogenities, e.g. void-like spaces like the lung. Until recently, dose calculation using a Boltzmann transport equation has not attracted much attention in the medical physics community. This access is based on deterministic transport equations of radiative transfer. Similar to Monte Carlo simulations it relies on a rigorous model of the physical interactions in human tissue that can in principle be solved exactly.
This minisymposium is centered around numerical and optimization approaches for treatment planning problem based on Boltzmann transport models. Recent results on numerical schemes for the efficient and accurate resolution of both the underlying kinetic equation and the high-dimensional optimization problem will be exchanged.