The Modern Technology of Radiation Oncology: A Compendium for Medical Physicists and Radiation Oncologists

Abstract

A sincere thank you: To Tomas Kron for seeding the concept of this book. To Jerry Battista for providing unending support, for being an excellent "sounding board," and for reviewing a number of my chapters. To the authors and co-authors of the chapters of this book. Their contributions have given this book the quality that it is. To Ervin Podgorsak and Glenn Glasgow who graciously took on the additional challenge of providing more than one chapter. To Christina Woodward for sleuthing and resolving incomplete references. To members of the Medical Physics group at the London Regional Cancer Centre who have been consistent in their help and support. To Betsey Phelps and the staff at Medical Physics Publishing for making this book a reality. To Barb Barons for clerical support.

Development of quality control standards for radiation therapy equipment in Canada

“…These include—but are not limited to—recommendations promulgated by the American Association of Physicists in Medicine, (1) The Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine, (2) and medical physics compendia. ( 3 , 4 ) …”

COMP report: CPQR technical quality control guidelines for treatment planning systems

“…The focus of this document is contained in Tables 1 and 2 and their associated notes which specify the routine quality control standards to be followed. More detailed descriptions of TPSs and in particular, commissioning activities and quality assurance, can be found in the source document9 and other related references 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15…”

COMP report: CPQR technical quality control guideline for medical linear accelerators and multileaf collimators

“…Medical linear accelerators (linacs) are cyclic accelerators which accelerate electrons to kinetic energies from 4 MeV to 25 MeV, using nonconservative microwave radio frequency (RF) fields in the frequency range from 10 3 MHz (L band) to ~10 4 MHz (X band), with the vast majority running at 2856 MHz (S band) 3, 4, 5, 6. In a linear accelerator the electrons are accelerated following straight trajectories in special evacuated structures called accelerating waveguides.…”

“…Included in the scope of this document are multileaf collimators (MLCs); computer‐controlled devices capable of providing photon beam shielding for linear accelerators using high density leaves (typically tungsten alloy) which are projected into the radiation field 7, 8, 9. In addition to static beam shaping, beam intensity modulation can also be achieved by adjusting the position of the MLC in the radiation field between treatment fields (step and shoot, or static intensity‐modulated radiation therapy [IMRT]), by moving the leaves across the field with varying velocities during the beam‐on time (dynamic IMRT), or by varying the dose rate, gantry speed, and MLC leaf positions during arc delivery (volumetric modulated arc therapy [VMAT]).…”