Commissioning and Quality Assurance Jacob Van Dyk Introduction Quality assurance (QA) is “all those planned and systematic actions necessary to provide adequate confidence that a product or a service will…

Treatment Planning Algorithms: Electron Beams Faiz M. Khan Most commercial treatment planning systems incorporate electron beam planning programs. However, not all programs have comparable accuracy or limitations. In general, the…

Treatment Planning Algorithms: Model-Based Photon Dose Calculations Thomas R. Mackie Hui Helen Liu Edwin C. McCullough Introduction This chapter takes a different approach to photon dose calculations in radiotherapy. There…

Patient Positioning and Immobilization Lawrence E. Reinstein Matthew B. Podgorsak Introduction The primary goal of radiotherapy is the delivery of a prescribed radiation dose to a predefined target volume, either…

Treatment Simulation Dimitris N. Mihailidis Niko Papanikolaou Introduction Treatment planning is one of the most crucial processes of radiotherapy, through which the most appropriate way to irradiate the patient is…

Imaging in Radiotherapy George T.Y. Chen Gregory C. Sharp John A. Wolfgang Introduction Imaging is the basis of modern radiotherapy. Imaging plays a major role in localizing the extent of…

Patient and Organ Movement James M. Balter Introduction The driving tenet of conformal radiotherapy is the precise delivery of focal radiation doses to the target, so that an effective dose…

Patient Data Acquisition Bahman Emami Introduction Radiation oncology is a clinical specialty devoted to the management of patients with malignant neoplasms by using ionizing radiation alone or in combination with…

Introduction: Process, Equipment, and Personnel Faiz M. Khan Every patient with cancer must have access to the best possible care regardless of constraints such as geographic separation from adequate facilities…