open access
Management of interruptions in radiotherapy treatments: Adaptive implementation in high workload sites
open access
Abstract
Owing to predictable or unpredictable causes, interruptions may arise during therapy. On average, the extension of fractionated radiotherapy treatments is prone to be delayed by several weeks and interruptions can come up extending overall treatment time (OTT). Clonogenic cells of aggressive tumors might benefit from this situation, modifying local control (LC).
Preserving treatment quality in radiotherapy is an essential issue for the treatment outcome, and our institution is increasingly concerned about this line of work.
Establishing some objective criteria to schedule patients that have suffered interruptions along their treatments is of capital importance and not a trivial issue. Publications strongly encourage departments to minimize the effect of lag periods during treatments. Therefore, in July 2017, our facility implemented the so called ‘Protocol to Manage Interruptions in Radiotherapy’, based on a scoring system for patient categorization that considers not only histology but also associated comorbidity and sequence of the therapy.
Abstract
Owing to predictable or unpredictable causes, interruptions may arise during therapy. On average, the extension of fractionated radiotherapy treatments is prone to be delayed by several weeks and interruptions can come up extending overall treatment time (OTT). Clonogenic cells of aggressive tumors might benefit from this situation, modifying local control (LC).
Preserving treatment quality in radiotherapy is an essential issue for the treatment outcome, and our institution is increasingly concerned about this line of work.
Establishing some objective criteria to schedule patients that have suffered interruptions along their treatments is of capital importance and not a trivial issue. Publications strongly encourage departments to minimize the effect of lag periods during treatments. Therefore, in July 2017, our facility implemented the so called ‘Protocol to Manage Interruptions in Radiotherapy’, based on a scoring system for patient categorization that considers not only histology but also associated comorbidity and sequence of the therapy.
Keywords
Treatment interruption; OTT; Workload; Dose compensation; Treatment quality
About this articleTitle
Management of interruptions in radiotherapy treatments: Adaptive implementation in high workload sites
Journal
Reports of Practical Oncology and Radiotherapy
Issue
Pages
239-244
Published online
2019-03-01
DOI
10.1016/j.rpor.2019.02.003
Bibliographic record
Rep Pract Oncol Radiother 2019;24(2):239-244.
Keywords
Treatment interruption
OTT
Workload
Dose compensation
Treatment quality
Authors
Gustavo Pozo
Maria Angeles Pérez-Escutia
Ana Ruíz
Alejandro Ferrando
Ana Milanés
Eduardo Cabello
Raul Díaz
Alejandro Prado
Jose Fermin Pérez-Regadera