[Quality and safety policy implementation for a new radiotherapy device]

Abstract

Modern radiotherapy techniques (intensity-modulated radiotherapy, volumetric-modulated arctherapy, image-guided radiotherapy) or stereotactic radiotherapy are in expansion in most French cancer centres. The arrival of such techniques requires updates of existing equipment or implementation of new radiotherapy devices with adapted options. With the arrival of these new devices, there is a need to develop a quality and safety policy. This is necessary to ease the process from the setup to the first treated patient. The quality and safety policy is maintained to ensure the quality assurance of the radiotherapy equipment. We conducted a review of the literature on the quality and safety policy in the French legal framework that can be proposed when implementing a new radiotherapy device.

Keywords: Accélérateurs linéaires; Analyse a posteriori des risques; Analyse des risques; Arc-thérapie volumétrique modulée; Culture de qualité et sûreté; Formations; Intensity-modulated radiotherapy; Quality and safety policy; Radiotherapy device; Radiothérapie par modulation d’intensité; Risk analysis; Stereotactic radiotherapy; Stéréotaxie; Training; Volumetric-modulated arctherapy.