Quality assurance in radiation therapy: multidisciplinary considerations--European experience

The organization of a multidisciplinary cancer treatment center is very heterogeneous in Europe. In Eastern Europe, there are written concepts of cancer treatment with advanced plans and an acceptable position for radiotherapy. In the future, there will be no principal differences between Eastern and Western Europe. In the development of radiotherapy in Europe, a determining factor seems to be that radiotherapy has been an independent clinical speciality. The problem in Germany can be explained on the basis that only now is radiotherapy separate from diagnostic radiology. In other countries radiotherapy has long been a strong independent speciality, often working with other cancer specialties. Great Britain, France, Belgium, The Netherlands and Italy are the leading countries in the development of radiotherapy. In the Scandanavian countries, radiotherapy has always had a strong position and has been able to develop further by integration with medical oncology. Cooperation between radiotherapists, radiophysicists, surgeons, pathologists, cytologists, etc., has given the cancer patient an opportunity for better overall treatment. The quality assurance in cancer therapy is the teamwork between different specialists before the treatment plan for the patient is decided.