Quality control of radiation therapy equipment

A review is given dealing mainly with the quality control functional performance characteristics of medical electron accelerators as the leading case of all equipment for radiotherapy. The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) has prepared a standard and a report, which are now in print. The standard addresses the definition of functional performance characteristics, the specification of test methods and conditions and the obligation of the manufacturer to declare the actual performance values of his equipment in a standardized format. In Germany, a translation of this standard is published as draft standard DIN 6847 part 4. IEC has prepared for simplified test procedures a report with guidelines and a reduced volume of test conditions for periodic tests during the working life of the accelerator. In Germany a standard DIN 6847 part 5 is published on "constancy checks" which is slightly but characteristically different from the IEC Report. The differences are schematically listed and discussed.