Increasing the Efficiency of CyberKnife Cancer Treatments by Faster Robot Traversal Paths

Sammanfattning: Cancer remains a significant global challenge, constituting one of the leading causes of death worldwide. With an aging population, the demand for cancer treatments is increasing. Nevertheless, due to technological advancements, cancer mortality rates are declining. This study contributes to these advancements, focusing specifically on radiation therapy, a crucial technology widely used today. Since the invention of radiation therapy, there has been significant research and progress in the field. One such advancement is the CyberKnife® system (Accuray Incorporated, Sunnyvale, CA, USA) - a fully robotic radiotherapy device that enables precise patient treatments. Its flexibility allows for the delivery of high-quality plans, but treatment times can be quite long, leading to adverse effects for both patients and healthcare providers. This thesis introduces algorithms aimed at reducing the robot traversal time of the CyberKnife technology. These algorithms are incorporated into an existing optimization framework for treatment planning, with their effectiveness evaluated across various patient cases. Significant reductions in treatment times for some patient cases were observed, while maintaining satisfactory plan quality, primarily due to more efficient traversal paths for the CyberKnife robot. The increased efficiency of the robot can also be leveraged to create treatment plans with more irradiation directions, increasing the treatment quality in some cases.