AMERICAN-ASSOCIATION-OF-PHYSICISTS IN MEDICINE RADIATION-THERAPY COMMITTEE TASK GROUP 53 - QUALITY ASSURANCE FOR CLINICAL RADIOTHERAPY TREATMENT PLANNING

In recent years, the sophistication and complexity of clinical treatme nt planning and treatment planning systems has increased significantly , particularly including three-dimensional (3D) treatment planning sys tems, and the use of conformal treatment planning and delivery techniq ues. This has led to the need for a comprehensive set of quality assur ance (QA) guidelines that can be applied to clinical treatment plannin g. This document is the report of Task Group 53 of the Radiation Thera py Committee of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine. Th e purpose of this report is to guide and assist the clinical medical p hysicist in developing and implementing a comprehensive but viable pro gram of quality assurance for modern radiotherapy treatment planning. The scope of the QA needs for treatment planning is quite broad, encom passing image-based definition of patient anatomy, 3D beam description s for complex beams including multileaf collimator apertures, 3D dose calculation algorithms, and complex plan evaluation tools including do se volume histograms. The Task Group recommends an organizational fram ework for the task of creating a QA program which is individualized to the needs of each institution and addresses the issues of acceptance testing, commissioning the planning system and planning process, routi ne quality assurance, and ongoing QA of the planning process. This rep ort, while not prescribing specific QA tests, provides the framework a nd guidance to allow radiation oncology physicists to design comprehen sive and practical treatment planning QA programs for their clinics. ( C) 1998 American Association of Physicists in Medicine. [S0094-2405(98 )03410-5].