A hybrid optimization method for focused ultrasound plan computation

Focused ultrasound therapy (FUS) is a modern and promising modality for minimally invasive cancer therapy. However, clinical routine still faces major problems in exploiting its full curative potential. The need for suitable mathematical concepts for FUS plan computation provides an urgent and important topic of current research. This work introduces a novel FUS plan computation method, which mimics the clinical planning workow in form of a hybrid optimization method. This method combines practically sound heuristics with goal-oriented continuous optimization methods based on optimal control. It thereby provides a suitable compromise between the required numerical expense and the achieved plan quality.