Quality Assurance in Adaptive Radiation Therapy
To ensure measurement accuracy, it is necessary to generate a comprehensive quality assurance (QA) program. “The ‘quality’ of radiation oncology can be defined as the totality of features or characteristics of the radiation oncology service that bear on its ability to satisfy the stated or implied goal of effective patient care” (Kutcher et al. 1994, p. 585). The comprehensive QA program is used to maintain and monitor the performance characteristics of the treatment system, which includes, but is not limited to, the treatment machine, imaging technology, and the planning system. If necessary, action should be taken to correct any unacceptable deviations from the baseline values acquired during acceptance testing and commissioning. Deviation from the baseline values could compromise patient treatment, resulting in suboptimal treatment response and undesirable complication effects. The quality of radiation oncology is therefore directly affected by the acceptance testing and commissioning process. The signifi-cance of the acceptance testing and commissioning process is well-acknowledged, and the corresponding procedures have been published in the literature (Nath et al. 1994; Svensson et al. 1984; Das et al. 2008).
