Varian Medical Systems Inc
Accounting for imaging-based radiation doses

Abstract:

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.