QUALITY ASSURANCE IN CONFORMAL RADIOTHERAPY - DYNARAD CONSENSUS REPORT ON PRACTICE GUIDELINES

Background and purpose: Conformal radiotherapy has only recently been widely implemented. Although not all aspects have yet been adequately proven, it is generally recognized that maintaining a high degree of p recision throughout the process is critical to the treatment outcome w hile the focus for quality assurance and quality improvement will need to concentrate more on human factors, procedures, communication, orga nization and training. A general consensus document on quality assuran ce guidelines for institutions that deliver conformal radiotherapy tre atments to patients has been elaborated within the framework of the DY NARAD/BIOMED concerted action on conformal radiotherapy. The present p aper aims to highlight those issues that were identified as of specifi c importance to conformal radiotherapy. The work reported here further details this guidance by direct correlation with the issues involved in the special case of conformal radiotherapy. Methods: The DYNARAD do cument has been drafted in the form of a desktop guide comprising six sets of guidelines and is based on the ESTRO advisory report on 'Quali ty Assurance in Radiotherapy'. Results and conclusions: The document h as been endorsed by the DYNARAD group of institutions. As such it can form the basis for further discussions and enter into the subsequent p hase of expanding its consensus basis. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science irela nd Ltd.