[Correlation between required quality assurance equipment and radiation therapy institutional level].

ABSTRACT

Radiotherapy institutions carry out various types of treatments such as conventional radiation treatment, stereotactic radiotherapy (SRT), intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT). According to the radiation treatment type, various kinds of quality assurance (QA) equipment are used to maintain the accurate dose delivery to a patient with accurate positioning. The aim of this report was to propose the QA equipment required at various institutional levels. The institution levels were categorized according to the radiation treatment cases. Institutions in the basic category used conventional radiotherapy techniques employing field sizes larger than 4 cm x 4 cm, or they had no full-time radiation oncologist. In addition to the basic level, five other categories were defined which were based on being able to carry out total body irradiation, three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy/SRT, IMRT, and IGRT. Minimum QA equipment requirements were proposed for each level. This proposal will facilitate the purchase of QA equipment for the installation or refurbishing of a linear accelerator.