ESTRO 2024 - Abstract Book

S2685

Interdisciplinary - Education in radiation therapy

ESTRO 2024

Figure 1: Question to determine whether HNC trials facilitate change in practice.

It was felt that trial participation helped to implement change by 56% of responders (figure 1). Specifically, changes were made to patient setup or pre-treatment CT imaging processes by 14% of responders. Responders implemented the use of MRI (24 responses) and PET-CT (6 responses) for GTV delineation. Changes in peer review or clinical audit procedures were made by 11% of responders. Changes to outlining and planning procedures were made by 51% and 28% of responders respectively (figure 2). Standardised nomenclature for target and OAR volumes was introduced by 31% of responders. HNC trials were used to implement IMRT or VMAT by 17% and 8% of responders respectively, where some comments stated that previous HNC trials were used. Changes to treatment delivery/verification procedures were made by 8% of responders. Comments associated trial participation and/or RTQA with volumetric outlining, use of MRI, nomenclature standardisation, planning technique development and introduction of daily imaging.

Figure 2: Changes made as a result of HNC trial participation in terms of outlining and planning.

RTQA pre-trial outlining benchmarks (BM) and on-trial individual case reviews (ICR) were reported to be useful by 92% and 85% of responders respectively. Planning BMs and ICRs were reported to be useful by 93% and 90% of responders respectively. The comments supported RTQA and BMs were felt to be more useful than ICRs, which may be due to the BMs being the first practice cases and the additional time pressures for ICRs. Comments indicated that planning QA was useful for optimising techniques, developing work instructions and identifying treatment planning system issues. Dosimetry audits were perceived to be useful by 88% of responders. Comments indicated that audits not only ensured quality, but also improved beam modelling and commissioning.