A TREATMENT PLANNING SYSTEM FOR STEREOTAXIC RADIOTHERAPY

Stereotactic radiotherapy to treat neoplastic lesions or artero-venus malformations in the brain may be accomplished with a linear accelerat or by performing several non-coplanar arcs of irradiation with a highl y collimated beam focused on a fixed point. This paper introduces a sy stem to perform treatment planning. It is based on a Personal Computer and allows the acquisition, reconstruction and visualization of the t arget volume, within the brain, from CT (Computerized Tomography) oi M R (Magnetic Resonance) images, and then it permits calculation and vis ualization of a 3-D (three-dimensional) dose distribution due to small photon beams. The performances of the system and its use in a practic al case are described.