SOBRA - Shielding Optimization for BRAchytherapy

In this paper, we study a combinatorial problem arising in the development of innovative treatment strategies and equipment using tunable shields in internal radiotherapy. From an algorithmic point of view, this problem is related to circular integer word decomposition into circular binary words under constraints. We consider several variants of the problem, depending on constraints and parameters and present exact algorithms, polynomial time approximation algorithms and NP-hardness results.