Competency: 13

Details

Design treatment plans for two to four field treatments for a range of sites in accordance with International Commission on Radiation Units and Measurements (ICRU) Guidance and local clinical protocols (explain choice of modality/energy, beam arrangement,  and compensation)

Considerations

• International, national and local guidelines in treatment planning.
• How the legislation and guidance particular to treatment planning, eg data protection, patient confidentiality, and Ionising Radiation (Medical Exposures) Regulations 2000 fit in with local practice.
• How to identify and comply with relevant international and national recommendations, IR(ME)R, Caldecott principles, ICRU guidelines.
• Use of imaging data for the treatment-planning process.
• Relevant departmental protocols and policies and their application with respect to dose prescription.
• Local protocols for data entry, utilisation and transfer.
• Basic understanding of sectional anatomy.
• Relative merits of treating with photons or electrons in clinical situations.
• How to prepare the relevant patient data and patient treatment- related data in a form appropriate for calculation.
• Relative dosimetry and the calculation of monitor units for photons and electrons.
• The underlying principles of creating a treatment plan and the manipulation of treatment parameters to achieve an acceptable relative dose distribution.
• How to record all calculations, calculation results and treatment instructions according to departmental protocols to provide sufficient detail for the method and results to be verified to satisfy an independent check and for the results to be used for treatment.
• The radiobiology behind choice of fractionation regimens.
• Criteria for acceptable dose to the planning target volume and maximum allowed dose to organs at risk, dependent on disease site.
• Capabilities and limitations of treatment machines and associated equipment.

Relevant learning outcomes