IAEA methodology for on-site end-to-end IMRT/VMAT audits: an international pilot study

Acta Oncol. 2020 Feb;59(2):141-148. doi: 10.1080/0284186X.2019.1685128. Epub 2019 Nov 20.

Abstract

Background: The IAEA has developed and tested an on-site, end-to-end IMRT/VMAT dosimetry audit methodology for head and neck cases using an anthropomorphic phantom. The audit methodology is described, and the results of the international pilot testing are presented.Material and methods: The audit utilizes a specially designed, commercially available anthropomorphic phantom capable of accommodating a small volume ion chamber (IC) in four locations (three in planning target volumes (PTVs) and one in an organ at risk (OAR)) and a Gafchromic film in a coronal plane for the absorbed dose to water and two-dimensional dose distribution measurements, respectively. The audit consists of a pre-visit and on-site phases. The pre-visit phase is carried out remotely and includes a treatment planning task and a set of computational exercises. The on-site phase aims at comparing the treatment planning system (TPS) calculations with measurements in the anthropomorphic phantom following an end-to-end approach. Two main aspects were tested in the pilot study: feasibility of the planning constraints and the accuracy of IC and film results in comparison with TPS calculations. Treatment plan quality was scored from 0 to 100.Results: Forty-two treatment plans were submitted by 14 institutions from 10 countries, with 79% of them having a plan quality score over 90. Seventeen sets of IC measurement results were collected, and the average measured to calculated dose ratio was 0.988 ± 0.016 for PTVs and 1.020 ± 0.029 for OAR. For 13 film measurement results, the average gamma passing rate was 94.1% using criteria of 3%/3 mm, 20% threshold and global gamma.Conclusions: The audit methodology was proved to be feasible and ready to be adopted by national dosimetry audit networks for local implementation.

Publication types

  • Multicenter Study

MeSH terms

  • Feasibility Studies
  • Head and Neck Neoplasms / radiotherapy
  • Humans
  • International Agencies
  • Medical Audit / methods*
  • Medical Audit / standards
  • Phantoms, Imaging
  • Pilot Projects
  • Quality Assurance, Health Care
  • Radiometry / instrumentation
  • Radiometry / standards*
  • Radiotherapy Dosage
  • Radiotherapy Planning, Computer-Assisted / standards*
  • Radiotherapy, Intensity-Modulated / standards*