Quality assurance in radiotherapy

Quality assurance in radiotherapy helps to reduce the number of errors that may occur in connection with decisions about therapeutic strategies and the administration of the doses determined and, on a global scale, contributes to the success of treatment in terms of higher rates of tumour remission and lower levels of side-effects and recidivation. Faulty treatment, be it accidental or system-related, can be due to errors, carelessness or misjudgements on the part of the responsible physicians, medical physicists and assisting personnel, but might just as well be caused by factors of physical or technical origin. The German translation of the WHO manual 'Quality Assurance in Radiotherapy' (Geneva, 1980) was published with the aim to pave the way for quality assurance measures in the German Federal Republic and other German-speaking regions and to give guidance to scientific societies and trade associations on the ways to actually achieve quality assurance in everyday radiotherapeutic routine. (orig.)