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Open Access 01-12-2016 | Short report

Beam Output Audit results within the EORTC Radiation Oncology Group network

Authors: Coen W. Hurkmans, Melissa Christiaens, Sandra Collette, Damien Charles Weber

Published in: Radiation Oncology | Issue 1/2016

Abstract

Beam Output Auditing (BOA) is one key process of the EORTC radiation therapy quality assurance program. Here the results obtained between 2005 and 2014 are presented and compared to previous results.

For all BOA reports the following parameters were scored: centre, country, date of audit, beam energies and treatment machines audited, auditing organisation, percentage of agreement between stated and measured dose.

Four-hundred and sixty-one BOA reports were analyzed containing the results of 1790 photon and 1366 electron beams, delivered by 755 different treatment machines. The majority of beams (91.1%) were within the optimal limit of ≤ 3%. Only 13 beams (0.4%; n = 9 electrons; n = 4 photons), were out of the range of acceptance of ≤ 5%. Previous reviews reported a much higher percentage of 2.5% or more of the BOAs with >5% deviation.

The majority of EORTC centres present beam output variations within the 3% tolerance cutoff value and only 0.4% of audited beams presented with variations of more than 5%. This is an important improvement compared to previous BOA results.

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Title: Beam Output Audit results within the EORTC Radiation Oncology Group network
Authors: Coen W. Hurkmans
Melissa Christiaens
Sandra Collette
Damien Charles Weber
Publication date: 01-12-2016
Publisher: BioMed Central
Published in: Radiation Oncology / Issue 1/2016
Electronic ISSN: 1748-717X
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13014-016-0733-4

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