title: Beam Output Audit results within the EORTC Radiation Oncology Group network.
abstract: Beam Output Auditing (BOA) is one key process of the EORTC radiation therapy quality assurance program. Here the results obtained between 2005 and 2014 are presented and compared to previous results.For all BOA reports the following parameters were scored: centre, country, date of audit, beam energies and treatment machines audited, auditing organisation, percentage of agreement between stated and measured dose.Four-hundred and sixty-one BOA reports were analyzed containing the results of 1790 photon and 1366 electron beams, delivered by 755 different treatment machines. The majority of beams (91.1%) were within the optimal limit of ≤ 3%. Only 13 beams (0.4%; n = 9 electrons; n = 4 photons), were out of the range of acceptance of ≤ 5%. Previous reviews reported a much higher percentage of 2.5% or more of the BOAs with >5% deviation.The majority of EORTC centres present beam output variations within the 3% tolerance cutoff value and only 0.4% of audited beams presented with variations of more than 5%. This is an important improvement compared to previous BOA results.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Catharina Hospital, Eindhoven, The Netherlands. coen.hurkmans@cze.nl.|EORTC ROG RTQA Strategic Committee, EORTC, Brussels, Belgium. coen.hurkmans@cze.nl.
authors.forename: Coen W
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Hurkmans
authors.affiliation: EORTC HQ, Brussels, Belgium.|Clinic for Particle Therapy, West German Proton Therapy Centre Essen, University Hospital Essen, Essen, Germany.
authors.forename: Melissa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Christiaens
authors.affiliation: EORTC HQ, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Collette
authors.affiliation: EORTC ROG RTQA Strategic Committee, EORTC, Brussels, Belgium.|Centre for Proton Therapy, Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Damien Charles
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Weber
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D018787:Radiation Oncology / Q000592:standards*
keywords: Audit; Beam output; Clinical trial; Quality assurance; Radiotherapy