15.071 | Spring 2017 | Graduate

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8.3 Radiation Therapy: An Application of Linear Optimization

8.3 Radiation Therapy: An Application of Linear Optimization

Quick Question

In the next video, we’ll be formulating the IMRT problem as a linear optimization problem. What do you think the decision variables in our problem will be?

 The amount of radiation to deliver to the tumor  close
 The intensities of the beams  close
 The intensities of the beamlets  check
 The shape of the tumor  close
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Explanation We get to decide the beamlet intensities - these will be the decision variables in our optimization problem. The amount of radiation to the tumor will be computed using the beamlet intensities, but we also want to make sure we know the amount of radiation to healthy tissue. The intensities of the beams would have been the decision variables in traditional radiation therapy, and the shape of the tumor is data.

Course Info

As Taught In
Spring 2017
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