The quality assurance programme of the Radiotherapy Group of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer: past, present and future

• Published in: European journal of surgical oncology 2005-08, Vol.31 (6), p.667-674
• Main Authors: Poortmans, P.M., Davis, J.B., Ataman, F., Bernier, J., Horiot, J.-C., for the EORTC Radiotherapy Group
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Clinical trials; Clinical Trials as Topic; Europe; European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC); History, 20th Century; History, 21st Century; Humans; Neoplasms - radiotherapy; Program Development; Quality assurance; Quality Assurance, Health Care - history; Quality Assurance, Health Care - organization & administration; Quality Assurance, Health Care - trends; Radiation Oncology - standards; Radiotherapy; Review; Societies, Medical
• ISSN: 0748-7983; 1532-2157
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ejso.2005.02.014

As early as in 1982, the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Radiotherapy Group established a quality assurance programme. In the course of 20 years, quality assurance procedures have become a vast and important part of the activities of the group. Today, the membership committee uses standard procedures based on minimal requirements to evaluate current members and new membership applications. Moreover, for every new trial, specific quality assurance procedures are an integral part of the preparation of the protocol and executed under the responsibility of the study coordinator. With the growing complexity of the radiotherapy techniques used in the framework of the more recent trials, quality assurance procedures have also become more complex including trial specific phantom based measurements. Future ways to evaluate all steps of the radiotherapy process using a common platform connecting all users with the internet are currently under development.