A radiotherapy protocol to document the process of irradiation of patients at the radiotherapy department

Abstract

A decision to start radiotherapy should be based on at least two documents:

• 1.

  Written standards of obligatory clinical procedures which are in fact radiotherapeutic schemes.

• 2.

  Therapeutic protocols describing all mandatory procedures performed to ensure a safe and proper treatment of the patient.

The range of activities described in the therapeutic protocol is very wide.

It includes all initial procedures implemented in the simulation room, the CT scanner, in the treatment planning system and the mould- room, and it describes the verification process of the treatment plan, mandatory to start radiotherapy.

The therapeutic protocol describes in details what and how should be checked by an internal control system and it qualifies the demands required to sum up the treatment and its’ accordance with the planned radiotherapy scheme.

All the activities performed are recorded in a QA protocol, which is an integral part of the therapeutic protocol.

In this paper we present the therapeutic protocol in force in the Regional Oncological Hospital in Szczecin and the QA and in-vivo protocols, which assure safe radiotherapy of the patient.