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An overview of the comprehensive proton therapy machine quality assurance procedures implemented at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Proton Therapy Center–Houston
Author(s) -
Arjomandy Bijan,
Sahoo Narayan,
Zhu X. Ronald,
Zullo John R.,
Wu Richard Y.,
Zhu Mingping,
Ding Xiaoning,
Martin Craig,
Ciangaru George,
Gillin Michael T.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
medical physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.473
H-Index - 180
eISSN - 2473-4209
pISSN - 0094-2405
DOI - 10.1118/1.3120288
Subject(s) - proton therapy , quality assurance , medical physics , particle therapy , center (category theory) , medicine , task group , nuclear medicine , radiation therapy , engineering management , engineering , surgery , chemistry , external quality assessment , pathology , crystallography
The number of proton and carbon ion therapy centers is increasing; however, since the publication of the International Commission on Radiation Units and Measurements report, there has been no dedicated report dealing with proton therapy quality assurance. The purpose of this article is to describe the quality assurance procedures performed on the passively scattered proton therapy beams at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Proton Therapy Center in Houston. The majorities of these procedures are either adopted from procedures outlined in the American Association of Physicists in Medical Task Group (TG) 40 report or are a modified version of the TG 40 procedures. In addition, new procedures, which were designed specifically to be applicable to the synchrotron at the author's center, have been implemented. The authors’ procedures were developed and customized to ensure patient safety and accurate operation of synchrotron to within explicit limits. This article describes these procedures and can be used by others as a guideline for developing QA procedures based on particle accelerator specific parameters and local regulations pertinent to any new facility.