QUALITY ASSURANCE OF THE EORTC RADIOTHERAPY TRIAL-22863 FOR PROSTATIC-CANCER - THE DUMMY RUN

The results of a dummy run involving nine centers participating in a s tudy comparing radiotherapy alone with radiotherapy plus hormone thera py in patients with high metastatic risk prostatic cancer (EORTC proto col 22863) show that, in all centers but one, patients are treated in the same way. However, they have also indicated that protocol complian ce could be improved by a better assessment of the target volume, by t aking into account of the use of protective shields and of variations in radiological density, by determining beam position on a large numbe r of slices, and by the use of CT scan images for treatment planning.