The Quality Assurance programme of the Radiotherapy Group of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC)

Radiotherapy dosimetry audit: three decades of improving standards and accuracy in UK clinical practice and trials

“…13,28,32 Similar programmes then ran in the UK associated with large multicentre clinical trials such as CHART (Continuous Hypofractionated Accelerated RT Trial for Lung and Head and Neck Cancer), 22 RT01 (a randomised controlled trial of high dose vs standard dose conformal RT for localized prostate cancer) 25,50 and START (UK Standardisation of Breast Radiotherapy trial) 27,51 using physicist and therapy radiographer expertise (with advice and support from clinicians), primarily at the Mount Vernon Cancer Centre and the Royal Marsden Hospital. From 2003, collaborative work between these individual centres led to the RTTQA being set-up, that has now become the UK Centre for QA in Clinical Trials (funded through the National Institute for Health Research Clinical Research Network, see website: www.rttrialsqa.org.uk).…”

“…The EORTC meanwhile has become established as a group responsible for the conduct of clinical trials, with the Radiation Oncology Group being the section which is responsible for radiotherapy trials. 28,52 Initial dosimetry audit in UK trials The CHART trial was the first UK trial to have an associated comprehensive audit programme with the emphasis on machinebased measurements. 22 This consisted of a full review (using a standard set of measurements) of one linear accelerator and simulator within each centre participating in the trial, performed at a visit to the centre by the QA team (therapy radiographer/ physicist/engineer).…”

“…European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) [28][29][30] and the Trans Tasman Radiation Oncology Group (TROG). 31 In Europe, the EORTC began a mailed TLD dosimetry audit pilot for clinical trial participants in 1988.…”

Quality Assurance in the EORTC Randomized Trial 22922/10925 Investigating the Role of Irradiation of the Internal Mammary and Medial Supraclavicular Lymph Node Chain Works

“…Additionally, the lack of evidence that a trial has been performed under strict conditions of quality assurance (QA) will reduce the acceptance of the results from such a trial. For these reasons and for several years now, the EORTC Radiation Oncology Group has developed a large number of QA procedures for clinical trials to test the ability of the participating institutes to cope with protocol guidelines [1,8,11,23]. In EORTC trial 22922/10925 the QA program consisted of (i) control of data consistency at the EORTC Data Centre by a double data entry procedure in the database, (ii) a dummy run procedure (DR) on "paper patients", (iii) an individual case review (ICR), and (iv) mailed TLD electron dosimetry [4,12,16,17].…”

Opening the black box of cancer surgery quality: WebSMR and the Alberta experience

“…A multidisciplinary approach to cancer treatment with access to standardized and evidence-based therapy has improved care [1,2]. Quality assurance criteria and guidelines are now available in many areas of radiation and medical oncology [3][4][5][6][7]. Quality assurance criteria and guidelines have been more difficult to define for cancer surgery [8,9].…”