Quality control during radiation therapy

The aim of quality control procedures during radiation therapy is to check the consistency between actual and prescribed treatments. Given the technical complexity of modern radiotherapy, stricter policies are necessary to meet increasing requirements for quality and safety. Among the various tools available, electronic imaging systems play an increasing role in patient-beam position checking and in vivo dose measurements. Written procedures will have to be established in order to describe the control modalities and frequency, as well as the rules for error corrections according to the treatment intent. Non medical staff will be devoted to new tasks, under the radiation oncologist's responsibility. A special attention should be directed at electronic archives, since the present technology is unlikely to meet the legal requirement to keep medical records accessible for at least 30 years. (authors)