Automatic Selection of Beam Orientations in Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy

Finding an optimal set of beam orientations in intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) planning is an important, but unfortunately, large-scale NP-hard optimization problem with impractical and excessive time complexity. Selecting appropriate beam directions in IMRT is still a time-consuming manual trial-and-error search procedure that depends on intuition and empirical knowledge. This work utilizes the methods of beamʹs eye view and observerʹs view, which are recognized for beam orientations in conventional conformal radiation therapy, to present an automatic algorithm that works in clinically practical time and aims at determining a suitable set of beam orientations for IMRT.