Harmony Search in Therapeutic Medical Physics

Medical physics is a branch of physics that concerns the application of radiation for therapeutic and diagnostic use in medicine. In therapeutic medical physics, ionizing radiation is used to treat patients afflicted with cancer. The main goal in radiotherapy is to deliver a high amount of radiation dose to cancer cells while sparing surrounding organs. The process begins with radiation treatment planning that requires optimization of radioisotope placement or radiation beam intensities. Prior optimization algorithms, such as genetic algorithm and simulated annealing, have been widely discussed in medical physics literature. However, Harmony Search has shown to be a superior optimization algorithm based on the results in other scientific fields. Thus, this study investigated high dose-rate prostate brachytherapy optimization using Harmony Search. Results showed that the algorithm is significantly faster than genetic algorithm and that rapid planning allows improved patient care in medical physics.

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