ESTRO 2024 - Abstract Book

S10

Invited Speaker

ESTRO 2024

Figure 1. DMAL presents the current landscape of use cases. The span of each box represents the typical ranges in the anatomical variation and the expected impact of dose mapping uncertainties for a given use case.

[1] Murr M, Brock KK, Fusella M, Hardcastle N, Hussein M, Jameson MG, et al. Applicability and usage of dose mapping/accumulation in radiotherapy. Radiother Oncol 2023;182. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.radonc.2023.109527.

3288

Are guidelines followed in the real world?

Lasse Refsgaard

Aarhus University Hospital, Danish Center for Particle Therapy, Aarhus, Denmark. Aarhus University, Department of Clincal Medicine, Aarhus, Denmark

Abstract:

When practise-changing radiotherapy trials provide high level evidence, the radiotherapy community has an intent to change treatment practices. This intent is crystallised in changes of clinical guidelines and by extension, hopefully the way treatments are carried out. Following this logic, the adherence to clinical guidelines plays a major role in assuring that patients benefit from new evidence. Several studies have shown that adhering to guidelines in radiotherapy is essential for maintaining the quality and consistency of treatments. This is important in clinical trials, but also fundamental in a non-trial patient setting where the majority (approximately 95%) of treatments take place. What good are guidelines if we do not follow them? The positive impact of guidelines is enhanced by the number of centres subscribing to them; however, this also makes the corresponding evaluation of adherence more complicated. Nevertheless, with the recent advances in data collection automation and processing in radiotherapy, it is now possible to collect and analyse the actual treatment data of all patients in a multicentre setting, allowing for a comprehensive investigation into guideline adherence on