Assessment of a treatment plan

Abstract

The present invention relates to a data processing method for determining an assessment of a candidate treatment plan, the candidate treatment plan being a plan for treatment of a patient's body, the data processing method comprising the following steps which are in particular performed by a computer: a) acquiring candidate patient data describing medical information on the patient; b) acquiring assessment criteria data describing criteria for assessing a treatment plan to be assessed and referred to as assessable treatment plan; c) acquiring candidate treatment plan data describing the candidate treatment plan; and d) determining the assessment of the candidate treatment plan on the basis of the candidate patient data, the assessment criteria data, and the candidate treatment plan data.

1 . A data processing method for determining an assessment of a candidate treatment plan, the candidate treatment plan being a plan for treatment of a patient's body, the data processing method comprising the following steps which are in particular performed by a computer:
 a) acquiring candidate patient data describing medical information on the patient;   b) acquiring assessment criteria data describing criteria for assessing a treatment plan to be assessed and referred to as assessable treatment plan;   c) acquiring candidate treatment plan data describing the candidate treatment plan; and   d) determining the assessment of the candidate treatment plan on the basis of the candidate patient data, the assessment criteria data, and the candidate treatment plan data.   
     
     
         2 . The data processing method of  claim 1 , wherein the candidate patient data are virtual patient data; and
 wherein the virtual patient data are determined based on a simulation of a first virtual treatment of the patient by determining the effect of the first virtual treatment of the patient on the current patient data which is in particular a surgical treatment; or   wherein the candidate patient data describe current patient data which describe the current medical status of the patient; and   wherein the candidate treatment plan is determined based on the current patient data for treating the patient which is in the current medical status.   
     
     
         3 . The data processing method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of acquiring the candidate treatment plan data comprises determining the candidate treatment plan data on the basis of the virtual patient data. 
     
     
         4 . The data processing method of  claim 3 , wherein the determined candidate treatment plan describes a plan for a treatment of the patient according to a second virtual treatment, which is in particular a radiotherapy treatment. 
     
     
         5 . The data processing method of  claim 3 , further comprising the step of acquiring a plurality of first virtual treatment data describing a plurality of first virtual treatments, respective ones of the plurality of virtual treatment data describing a respective one of the first virtual treatments;
 wherein the step of determining the virtual patient data comprises determining a plurality of the virtual patient data based on the described plurality of the first virtual treatments, respective ones of the plurality of the virtual patient data being determined based on a respective one of the plurality of first virtual treatments;   wherein the step of determining the candidate treatment plan data comprises determining a plurality of the candidate treatment plan data respectively describing one of a plurality of assessable treatment plans, a respective one of the plurality of the candidate treatment plans being determined based on a respective one of the plurality of the virtual patient data; and   wherein the step of determining the assessment comprises determining a plurality of the assessments on the basis of the determined plurality of candidate treatment plans, the virtual patient data and the assessment criteria data, a respective one of the plurality of the assessments being determined on the basis of a respective one of the plurality of candidate treatment plans, the virtual patient data and the assessment criteria data.   
     
     
         6 . The data processing method of  claim 1 , comprising:
 acquiring region data which describe a link between regions of the patient's body and the first virtual treatments; and   respectively determining for the regions a quality of the first virtual treatment based on the assigned assessment and/or determining whether the quality is above a predetermined threshold and/or determining whether the quality improves compared to the case that no first virtual treatment is performed.   
     
     
         7 . The data processing method of  claim 1 , wherein the assessment criteria data comprise a criteria table which assigns different criteria to different reference patient data and wherein that one of the different criteria is selected for the assessment which is assigned to that one of the reference patient data which has highest similarity to the candidate patient data. 
     
     
         8 . The data processing method of  claim 1 , wherein dose distribution data are acquired which describe the a distribution within the patient's body if a radiotherapy treatment is performed in accordance with the candidate treatment plan and;
 wherein the acquired assessment criteria comprise criteria for the dose distribution and wherein the determining of the assessment is based on the dose distribution described by the dose distribution data, and;   wherein the candidate patient data comprise data referred to as treatment beam absorption data, the treatment beam absorption data describing absorption properties of at least part of the patient's body to be treated in accordance with the candidate treatment plan or wherein treatment beam absorption data are determined from reference patient data which are most similar to the candidate patient data, the dose distribution data are determined based on the treatment beam absorption data and the candidate treatment plan.   
     
     
         9 . The data processing method of  claim 1 , wherein comparison dose distribution data are acquired which describe comparison dose distributions for patients referred to as comparison patients which have been treated in accordance with treatment plans referred to as comparison treatment plans and wherein a dose distribution is determined based on similarity between the candidate treatment plan and the comparison treatment plans and/or similarity between the candidate patient data and patient data which describe the comparison patients. 
     
     
         10 . The data processing method of  claim 1  further comprising the step of acquiring reference patient data comprising reference data information about the reference target region of a reference patient's body, and of determining, based on the candidate patient data, reference treatment plan data comprising reference treatment plan information about a reference treatment plan,
 wherein determining the candidate treatment plan data comprises adapting the reference treatment plan data based on the candidate patient data or selecting the reference treatment plan data as current treatment plan data. 
 
     
     
         11 . The method according to  claim 10 , comprising:
 determining, based on the candidate patient data and the reference patient data, applicability data comprising applicability information about the applicability of the information contained in the reference patient data to the information contained in the candidate patient data.   
     
     
         12 . The data processing method of  claim 2 , wherein indication information is determined which describe at least one first virtual treatment, in particular a virtual surgery step which results in candidate patient data which in turn result in a determined assessment which is acceptable according to the assessment criteria data. 
     
     
         13 . The data processing method of  claim 12 , comprising the step of acquiring instrument criteria data which describe criteria for allowed positions or not allowed positions of the instrument, wherein the instrument criteria data are determined based on first virtual treatment steps, in particular virtual surgical treatment step which result in a negative assessment of the candidate treatment plan determined for the first virtual treatment step and/or determined based on first virtual treatment steps, in particular virtual surgical treatment step which result in a positive assessment of the candidate treatment plan determined for the first virtual treatment step. 
     
     
         14 . A program which, when running on a computer or when loaded onto a computer, causes the computer to perform one or more or all of the method steps according to  claim 1  and/or a program storage medium on which the program is stored in particular in a non-transitory form and/or a computer on which the program is running or into the memory of which the program is loaded and/or a signal wave, in particular a digital signal wave, carrying information which represents the program, in particular the aforementioned program, which in particular comprises code means which are adapted to perform any or all of the method steps described herein. 
     
     
         15 . A navigation system, comprising:
 the computer according to  claim 13 ; a detection device for detecting the position of a surgical instrument.