Adaptive Radiotherapy Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- 58.9% of all 151 records sit with just five assignees, while the ranked leader alone holds 34 — filing is concentrated, not fragmented.
- 120% filing growth from 2021 to 2024 (5 to 11 records) shows renewed momentum after a 2019 peak of 33 records.
- Only 10 co-assignee pairs recorded across the dataset, meaning most organisations are filing solo rather than jointly.
Filing growth compares 2021 (5 records) with 2024 (11) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 151 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this patent landscape covers
This landscape tracks 151 published records filed between 2015 and the 2026 data cut-off that combine adaptive radiotherapy concepts — online adaptation, adaptive replanning — with the technical mechanisms that implement them: contour propagation, dose accumulation, plan approval time, anatomy change detection, automation level and staffing model. The scope spans equipment makers, imaging software vendors and university radiotherapy research groups filing across United States, European, PCT and national offices.
Filing activity peaked in 2019 and has since shown a renewed growth phase through 2024, with claim density concentrated in radiation-therapy delivery and image-processing classes rather than spread evenly across the technology stack.
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How the filing trend and technology mix break down
The dataset spans 151 published records from 2015 through the 2026 cut-off, tracked across IPC subclasses and receiving offices.
Filing trend: growth resumed after a mid-decade peak
Filings peaked in 2019 at 33 records, then cooled before rising again: 2021 to 2024 grew from 5 to 11 records, a 120% increase over that three-year span. 2025 and 2026 figures are still incomplete because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the most recent two years should not be read as a slowdown.
Technology composition: radiation therapy and imaging dominate
A61N (electrotherapy and radiation therapy) appears in 64.2% of the 151 records in scope, followed by G06T (image data processing) at 47.7% and A61B (diagnosis and surgery) at 38.4%. Because records can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares sum past 100% — the chart reflects how often each class co-occurs with the core adaptive-radiotherapy claim set, not a partition of the dataset.
Shares are the percentage of the 151 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Adaptive Radiotherapy Workflows with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about adaptive radiotherapy workflows and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe records shaping this claim space
Adaptive replanning based on multimodality imaging
Systems and methods directed to adaptive radiotherapy planning are provided. In some aspects, the provided system and method include producing synthetic images from magnetic resonance data using relaxometry maps, applying corrections to that data, and generating relaxometry maps from it. In other aspects, a method for adapting a radiotherapy plan determines an objective function based on dose gradients from an initial dose distribution and generates an optimized plan based on updated images, using aperture morphing and gradient maintenance algorithms without needing organ-at-risk contouring.Filed by The Medical College of Wisconsin, Inc.; published 2016-10-27.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US9764162B1 | Automated, data-driven treatment management system for adaptive radiotherapy workflows | 124 |
| 2 | US20160310761A1 | Adaptive replanning based on multimodality imaging | 113 |
| 3 | US20080298540A1 | Deformable phantom apparatus | 106 |
| 4 | WO2015103184A1 | Adaptive replanning based on multimodality imaging | 68 |
| 5 | US20160059039A1 | System and method for robust intensity-modulated proton therapy planning | 64 |
| 6 | WO2007045075A1 | Real-time dose reconstruction using dynamic simulation and image guided adaptive radiotherapy | 50 |
| 7 | US10799716B2 | Streamlined, guided on-couch adaptive workflow | 38 |
| 8 | US20180314906A1 | Systems and methods for detecting landmark pairs in images | 37 |
| 9 | WO2014022480A1 | Deformable dosimetric phantom | 31 |
| 10 | US7667191B2 | Deformable phantom apparatus | 29 |
Ranked by citation count within the searched corpus; older records accumulate citations over time, so treat this as a signal of influence rather than current relevance.
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Browse MCP servers →What the filing data indicates for strategy
Three findings from the dataset shape where new claims are likely to clear and where they will run into dense prior art.
Filing is concentrated, not diffuse
With the leading assignee alone holding 34 records and the top five holding 58.9% of the 151 records in scope, new entrants face established claim language on the core imaging-plus-dose-recalculation workflow rather than open ground.
Growth resumed after a mid-cycle peak
After peaking at 33 records in 2019, filings cooled before climbing again from 5 records in 2021 to 11 in 2024. The most recent two years are still incomplete due to publication lag, so this three-year window is the clearest recent signal.
Radiation therapy claims anchor the field
A61N (electrotherapy and radiation therapy) appears in 64.2% of records and G06T (image processing) in 47.7%, showing that most adaptive workflow claims combine a therapy delivery mechanism with an imaging or re-planning step rather than either alone.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to adaptive radiotherapy workflows, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gaps sit
The ranked leaders hold most of the claim space, but the technology composition data shows several branches with far lighter filing density than the field average.
A clear leader, then a steep drop
The top-ranked assignee holds 34 of the 151 records in scope, more than four times the fifth-place assignee's 8 records — a gap that suggests a single dominant filer rather than a tightly bunched leading group.
Most activity sits with a small group
Ten assignees account for 82.1% of the 151 records in scope, leaving the remaining 28 ranked assignees to share the balance — consistent with a field where a handful of medical-device and imaging companies plus a few university groups set the pace.
Most filers work alone
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear across the dataset, with the strongest pairing linking a major imaging company to a university health network. Joint filings are the exception here, not the norm.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Medical College of Wisconsin, Inc. | 1 | 0% |
| Elekta AB | 1 | — |
| Siemens Healthineers International AG | 0 | — |
| Varian Medical Systems International AG | 0 | — |
| Accuray LLC | 0 | -100% |
| Koninklijke Philips N.V. | 0 | — |
| MIRADA MEDICAL | 0 | — |
| The Regents of the University of Colorado | 0 | -100% |
Where to take this analysis
The filing data points to a concentrated leadership group and several lighter-claimed branches worth a closer look before committing to a filing strategy.
Check claim scope against the leading assignees
With 58.9% of all 151 records held by five assignees, a freedom-to-operate review of the leader's portfolio is the first practical step before drafting new claims in this space.
Explore assignee portfolios in EurekaTrack the 2021-2024 momentum window closely
The 120% growth from 2021 to 2024 is the clearest recent trend signal, since 2025-2026 figures are still incomplete due to publication lag.
Monitor filing trends in EurekaEvaluate the under-claimed measurement branches
G01T and G01R classes sit well below the field average, suggesting real-time dosimetric measurement claims may face less prior art density.
Run a white-space search in EurekaCommon questions about this patent landscape
Filing in this dataset is concentrated at the top: the five leading assignees together account for 58.9% of all 151 records in scope, and the ten leading assignees account for 82.1%. The single leader holds 34 records, well ahead of the fifth-place assignee at 8 and tenth place at 6. That pattern means a small group of medical-device and imaging companies, alongside a few university research groups, set most of the claim language other filers have to work around.
In this dataset the search terms combine core adaptive-therapy concepts — online adaptation, adaptive replanning — with the technical mechanisms that make adaptation possible: contour propagation, dose accumulation, plan approval time, anatomy change detection, automation level and staffing model. That combination is why the technology composition leans heavily on A61N (electrotherapy and radiation therapy, 64.2% of records) and G06T (image processing, 47.7%), since most adaptive workflows are built around re-imaging plus dose recalculation.
The filing trend shows a peak of 33 records in 2019, a subsequent cooling, then renewed growth from 2021 to 2024 — 5 records up to 11, a 120% increase over that span. Figures for 2025 and 2026 are still filling in because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so those most recent years understate actual filing activity rather than indicating a decline. Treat the 2021-2024 window as the most reliable recent signal.
The thinner IPC branches — nuclear/X-radiation measurement (G01T, 7.3% of records), electric/magnetic measurement (G01R, 6.6%) and data recognition/presentation (G06K, 6.6%) — are far less claimed than the dominant electrotherapy and imaging classes. With only 10 recorded co-assignee pairs, most filers are also working alone rather than in joint filings, which points to open room for claims that combine real-time dosimetric measurement with automated plan-approval logic.
US9764162B1, titled 'Automated, data-driven treatment management system for adaptive radiotherapy workflows,' is the most-cited record in this dataset at 124 citations. It describes an automated system for managing treatment adaptation decisions, and its citation depth indicates that later filers have repeatedly had to describe their own automation logic in reference to it. Anyone building an automated adaptive-workflow management layer should review its claim scope closely before finalising claim language of their own.
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company’s registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.