Molecular dynamics used in radiation therapy - art. no. 168101

In this Letter, classical molecular dynamics is used to deal with optimizat ion problems occurring in intensity modulated radiation therapy. By introdu cing the concepts of virtual atom and virtual cluster, the optimization pro cess in this kind of therapy can be considered as an analogy to finding the equilibrium configuration of a cluster. This viewpoint gives great insight into the optimization problems. To show how the idea works, a dose-based o bjective function is adopted to obtain the optimized intensity profiles. Th e results and high computational efficiency show that molecular dynamics is applicable clinically for this therapy. The idea presented here also could be inspiring to other fields where optimization problems exist.