A Survey on 4{\pi} Treatment Planning Technique for Radiation Therapy

TL;DR

This survey reviews the 4π treatment planning technique in radiation therapy, highlighting its potential to increase tumor dose while sparing healthy tissue, through optimization methods and various research investigations.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of the 4π technique, focusing on optimization problem formulation and summarizing existing research efforts.

Findings

4π technique enables dose escalation for certain cancers.

Optimization formulations are central to 4π planning.

Research investigations have explored various aspects of 4π methods.

Abstract

The challenge of removing cancerous cells lies in the limitation of organ at risk, which restricts the ability to increase the radiation dose adequately for enhancing treatment effectiveness. This survey provides a comprehensive overview of the 4{\pi} planning technique for radiation therapy. In radiation therapy, the gantry of Medical linear accelerators can rotate around the couch to administer radiation from various angles. Researchers have introduced the 4{\pi} technique with the objective of increasing the radiation dose to tumors while minimizing damage to nearby organs. While dose escalation may not be feasible in certain cases due to potential complications in normal tissues, the 4{\pi} technique enables dose escalation for certain types of cancers. The optimization problem formulation constitutes a major innovation in the 4{\pi} technique. In this survey, we went thorough optimization problem of 4{\pi} technique and discussed about the available investigations that have been performed on 4{\pi} technique.