Delivery of brachytherapy for cervical cancer: organisational and technical advice to facilitate high-quality care.
OBJECTIVE
Brachytherapy is a standard therapy for cervical cancer; it allows for the delivery of a high dose of radiation to the tumour while sparing the surrounding healthy tissues. With this document, the Brachytherapy Cervical Cancer Expert Working Group (BCCEWG) aimed to provide advice on organisational and technical aspects of the delivery of brachytherapy services in Ontario, Canada.


METHODS
We sought technical documents, practice guidelines and standards through an environmental scan of internet resources, an iterative search of the literature on MEDLINE and EMBASE, and a search of reference lists of included documents.


RESULTS
We identified 20 guidance documents authored by 10 organisations; 11 documents were identified through the environmental scan, five through the literature search and four from reference lists. The recommendations included in this document were developed by the BCCEWG through the selection and review of the evidence and informal consensus.


CONCLUSIONS
These organisational recommendations aim to set the stage for high-quality delivery of brachytherapy for cervical cancer services in the province of Ontario, Canada. They address the characteristics of the practice setting, including facilities, equipment, delivery suite, imaging technologies, treatment planning and dosimetry; the practice team, including team members, roles, training, team caseload/volumes and qualifications; and the quality assurance domain, including documentation, audit, safety and quality control.
Morton
G
G
Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Walker-Dilks
C
C
Baldassarre
F
F
D'Souza
D
D
Falkson
C
C
Batchelar
D
D
Gutierrez
E
E
Bak
K
K
D001918:Brachytherapy / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D002170:Canada; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009864:Ontario; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D011786:Quality Control; D011880:Radiotherapy Planning, Computer-Assisted / Q000592:standards*; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy*