1. GEC-ESTRO survey of 106 Ru eye applicator practice for ocular melanoma - Physicist survey.
- Author
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De Brabandere M, Placidi E, Siebert FA, Carlsson Tedgren Å, Slocker Escarpa A, Tagliaferri L, Andrássy M, Schulz C, and Fog LS
- Subjects
- Humans, Radiotherapy Dosage, Radiotherapy Planning, Computer-Assisted, Surveys and Questionnaires, Melanoma radiotherapy, Brachytherapy methods
- Abstract
Aim:
106 Ru eye plaque brachytherapy (BT, interventional radiotherapy) is an eye-preserving treatment for uveal melanoma performed in about 100 clinics worldwide. Despite this relatively low number, there is a considerable variation in clinical practice. In 2022, the BRAPHYQS and Head & Neck and Skin GEC-ESTRO working groups conducted a survey to map the current clinical practice. The survey consisted of a physicist and a physician part. This paper describes the physicist results. However, three physician questions with overlapping interest are included here as well., Materials and Methods: The survey questions pertained to commissioning and quality control (QC) of the plaques, treatment planning, radiobiological correction, as well as more general questions on practice improvement. The questions overlapping with the physician survey were related to dose prescription and margins., Results: Sixty-five physicist responses were included. A majority of the centres do not perform an independent measurement of the absorbed dose at reference depth, percentage depth dose (PDD) and off-axis data. A lack of calibration services and suitable equipment are the main reasons. About one third of the centres indicated that they do image based treatment planning. The use of margins and dose prescription showed a large variability, despite the availability of guidelines [1]. Many respondents expressed a strong wish for improvement in a wide range of aspects of clinical practice., Conclusion: The physics survey showed a wide variability regarding quality control of the106 Ru sources and treatment planning practice., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)- Published
- 2024
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