HOW DO WE OVERCOME RECENT RADIOTHERAPY ACCIDENTS?

—A REPORT OF THE SYMPOSIUM HELD AT THE 17TH JASTRO ANNUAL SCIENTIFIC MEETING, CHIBA, 2004—

Abstract

This is a report of the symposium entitled “How do we overcome recent radiotherapy accidents?” which was held at the 17th JASTRO Annual Scientific Meeting, Chiba, November, 2004. Eleven accidents of radiotherapy institutions were publicly reported from 2001 through 2004, and 8 of these directly affected patients. At the same time as the first accident happened in 2001, the Intersociety Council of Medical Physics was established and began its action, to search for the cause and to protect against similar accidents at other institutions. Of these, 7 out of 8 accidents were related to updated radiotherapy treatment planning (RTP) system, 4 were due to errors at the acceptance and commissioning of the new RTP system, and one was due to misunderstanding of rules about the delivery dose and not enough mutual communication between a physician and a technologist. The recent activities to maintain and to improve the quality assurance/quality control of radiotherapy are also described