Related papers: Optimizing normal tissue sparing via spatiotempora…
In robotic radiation therapy, high-energy photon beams from different directions are directed at a target within the patient. Target motion can be tracked by robotic ultrasound and then compensated by synchronous beam motion. However,…
A dynamical system model for tumor -- immune system interaction together with a method to mimic radiation therapy are proposed. A large population of virtual patients is simulated following an ideal radiation treatment. A characteristic…
We consider a real-world chemotherapy scheduling template design problem, where we cluster patient types into groups and find a representative time-slot duration for each group to accommodate all patient types assigned to that group, aiming…
Delineating and planning with respect to regions suspected to contain microscopic tumor cells is an inherently uncertain task in radiotherapy. The recently proposed \textit{clinical target distribution} (CTD) is an alternative to the…
In this paper, we study pooling downstream beds across specialties in a stochastic operating room planning problem. The main sources of uncertainty are stochastic surgical durations and patients' lengths of stay. We developed a two-stage…
The modern workflow for radiation therapy treatment planning involves mathematical optimization to determine optimal treatment machine parameters for each patient case. The optimization problems can be computationally expensive, requiring…
We develop and apply a novel shape optimization exemplified for a two-blade rotor with respect to the figure of merit ($FM$). This topologically assisted optimization (TAO) contains two steps. First a global evolutionary optimization is…
Purpose: The FLASH effect, which reduces the radiosensitivity of healthy tissue while maintaining tumor control at high dose rates, has shown potential for improving radiation therapy. Conformal FLASH proton therapy involves advanced…
In many applied optimization settings, parameters that define the constraints may not guarantee the best possible solution, and superior solutions might exist that are infeasible for the given parameter values. Removing such constraints,…
Automatic localization and segmentation of organs-at-risk (OAR) in CT are essential pre-processing steps in medical image analysis tasks, such as radiation therapy planning. For instance, the segmentation of OAR surrounding tumors enables…
Phase I dose escalation trials in oncology generally aim to find the maximum tolerated dose (MTD). However, with the advent of molecular targeted therapies and antibody drug conjugates, dose limiting toxicities are less frequently observed,…
The combination of cytotoxic therapies and anti-angiogenic agents is emerging as a most promising strategy in the treatment of malignant tumors. However, the timing and sequencing of these treatments seem to play essential roles in…
Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy (VMAT) is a cornerstone of modern radiation therapy, enabling highly conformal tumor irradiation and healthy-tissue sparing. Yet, its planning solves inverse and nested optimization for multi-leaf…
In concurrent chemoradiotherapy, chemotherapeutic agents are administered during the course of radiotherapy to enhance the primary tumor control. However, that often comes at the expense of increased risk of normal-tissue complications. The…
Objective: Radiation therapy treatment planning is a time-consuming, iterative process with potentially high inter-planner variability. Fully automated treatment planning processes could reduce a planner's active treatment planning time and…
We propose combined allocation, assignment, sequencing, and scheduling problems under uncertainty involving multiple operation rooms (ORs), anesthesiologists, and surgeries, as well as methodologies for solving such problems. Specifically,…
Surgical scheduling optimization is an active area of research. However, few algorithms to optimize surgical scheduling are implemented and see sustained use. An algorithm is more likely to be implemented, if it allows for surgeon autonomy,…
The predicted increase in the number of patients receiving radiation therapy (RT) to treat cancer calls for an optimized use of resources. To manually schedule patients on the linear accelerators delivering RT is a time-consuming and…
A central problem in the field of radiation therapy (RT) is how to optimally deliver dose to a patient in a way that fully accounts for anatomical position changes over time. As current RT is a static process, where beam intensities are…
Background and Purpose: Increasing the number of arcs in volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) allows for better intensity modulation and may improve plan quality. However, this leads to longer delivery times, which may cause patient…