title: Quality assurance guidelines for superficial hyperthermia clinical trials: I. Clinical requirements.
abstract: Quality assurance guidelines are essential to provide uniform execution of clinical trials and treatment in the application of hyperthermia. This document provides definitions for a good hyperthermia treatment and identifies the clinical conditions where a certain hyperthermia system can or cannot adequately heat the tumour volume. It also provides brief description of the characteristics and performance of the current electromagnetic (radiative and capacitive), ultrasound and infra-red heating techniques. This information helps to select the appropriate heating technique for the specific tumour location and size, and appropriate settings of the water bolus and thermometry. Finally, requirements of staff training and documentation are provided. The guidelines in this document focus on the clinical application and are complemented with a second, more technical quality assurance document providing instructions and procedure to determine essential parameters that describe heating properties of the applicator for superficial hyperthermia. Both sets of guidelines were developed by the ESHO Technical Committee with participation of senior STM members and members of the Atzelsberg Circle.
authors.affiliation: a Signals and Systems , Chalmers University of Technology , Göteborg , Sweden.
authors.forename: Hana Dobšíček
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Trefná
authors.affiliation: b Radiotherapy , AMC , Amsterdam , The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Hans
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Crezee
authors.affiliation: c Radiotherapy Clinics, Universitatsklinikum Erlangen , Erlangen , Germany.
authors.forename: Manfred
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schmidt
authors.affiliation: d Kantonsspital Aarau , Aarau , Switzerland.
authors.forename: Dietmar
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Marder
authors.affiliation: e Radiation Oncology , University Hospital Tuebingen , Tuebingen , Germany.
authors.forename: Ulf
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Lamprecht
authors.affiliation: f Radiation Oncology , University Medical Centre Mannheim , Mannheim , Germany.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ehmann
authors.affiliation: c Radiotherapy Clinics, Universitatsklinikum Erlangen , Erlangen , Germany.
authors.forename: Josefin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hartmann
authors.affiliation: g Klinik für Radioonkologie und Strahlentherapie , Campus Virchow Klinikum, Charite Universitatsmedizin Berlin , Berlin , Germany.
authors.forename: Jacek
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Nadobny
authors.affiliation: e Radiation Oncology , University Hospital Tuebingen , Tuebingen , Germany.|h Praxis/Zentrum für Strahlentherapie und Radioonkologie , Berlin , Germany.
authors.forename: Johanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gellermann
authors.affiliation: i Radiation Oncology , Erasmus MC Daniel den Hoed Cancer Center , Rotterdam , The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Netteke
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: van Holthe
authors.affiliation: g Klinik für Radioonkologie und Strahlentherapie , Campus Virchow Klinikum, Charite Universitatsmedizin Berlin , Berlin , Germany.
authors.forename: Pirus
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ghadjar
authors.affiliation: d Kantonsspital Aarau , Aarau , Switzerland.
authors.forename: Nicoletta
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Lomax
authors.affiliation: j Department of Internal Medicine III , Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich , Munich , Germany.
authors.forename: Sultan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Abdel-Rahman
authors.affiliation: c Radiotherapy Clinics, Universitatsklinikum Erlangen , Erlangen , Germany.|k Department of Biophysics , GSI - Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research , Darmstadt , Germany.
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bert
authors.affiliation: b Radiotherapy , AMC , Amsterdam , The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Akke
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bakker
authors.affiliation: l Department of Radiation Oncology , Thomas Jefferson University , Philadelphia , PA , USA.
authors.forename: Mark D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Hurwitz
authors.affiliation: m Department of Radiation Oncology , UCSF , San Francisco , CA , USA.
authors.forename: Chris J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Diederich
authors.affiliation: l Department of Radiation Oncology , Thomas Jefferson University , Philadelphia , PA , USA.
authors.forename: Paul R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Stauffer
authors.affiliation: i Radiation Oncology , Erasmus MC Daniel den Hoed Cancer Center , Rotterdam , The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Gerard C
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: van Rhoon
keywords: Quality assurance; clinical; hyperthermia; superficial