Initiation of a teleradiotherapeutic network for patients in German lymphoma studies

The Development of Quality Assurance Programs for Radiotherapy within the German Hodgkin Study Group (GHSG)

“…Participating radiation oncologists are trained on the definition of IF-RT on GHSG meetings and on the annual meetings of the DEGRO. The introduction of teleradiotherapy [9] into the GHSG trials improves the dialogue between the RT reference center and study centers and thus contributes to high RT quality for study patients.…”

“…A facility for central online documentation was installed. Telemedical functions were successfully integrated into the ongoing RT QAP [9]. Since the introduction of a teleradiotherapeutic workstation in the RT reference center in Cologne in January 2001, the images of 10% (856 patients) of all reviewed cases of the ongoing HD10-15 trials were delivered digitally.…”

Teleoncology for gynecologic cancers

“…In general, radiation oncologists have attempted to address this problem by constructing a tiered system for teleradiotherapy which consolidates the most complex treatments at tertiary referral centers, but allows for treatment planning and relatively simple treatment protocols at remote centers [47,48]. Success with this approach has been reported by centers in Norway [49], Japan [50], Germany [51] and Switzerland [48]. Importantly for the treatment of gynecologic cancers, remote coordination of external beam therapy may be more feasible than remote coordination of brachytherapy.…”

Involved-Node Radiotherapy in Early-Stage Hodgkin’s Lymphoma

“…Stage I, IIa Without RF a-d; IIB with RF c, d risk of treatment failure [5,8,11,21]. Although the radiotherapy study centers got a precise radiotherapy prescription in the trials HD10 and HD11, the radiotherapy reference panel evaluated that most difficulties (40%) occurred in the adequate coverage of the IF as defined in the study protocol [4,12].…”