Patent attributes
The invention relates to methods and systems for computationally efficient optimization of radiation dose delivery that involve determining an objective function to be used for mapping radiotherapy beams to a patient body volume having at least one target volume and at least one non-target volume. The objective function has a first term related to the at least one target volume and a second term related to the at least one non-target volume. The second term is zero only if the weights of beamlets mapped so as to pass through the non-target volume(s) are zero. The second term helps to avoid the occurrence of negative beam weights, thereby facilitating computationally efficient optimization using matrix inversion. An optimal set of weights of beamlets is determined using the objective function. Radiotherapy is delivered based on the determined optimal set of weights.