Optimisation in radiotherapy. II: Programmed and inversion optimisation algorithms

This is the second article in a three part examination of optimisation in radiotherapy. The previous article established the bases of optimisation in radiotherapy, and the formulation of the optimisation problem. This paper outlines several algorithms that have been used in radiotherapy, for searching for the best irradiation strategy within the full set of possible strategies. Two principle classes of algorithm are considered--those associated with mathematical programming which employ specific search techniques, linear programming-type searches or artificial intelligence--and those which seek to perform a numerical inversion of the optimisation problem, finishing with deterministic iterative inversion.