Medical physics staffing for radiation oncology: a decade of experience in Ontario, Canada.

The January 2010 articles in The New York Times generated intense focus on patient safety in radiation treatment, with physics staffing identified frequently as a critical factor for consistent quality assurance. The purpose of this work is to review our experience with medical physics staffing, and to propose a transparent and flexible staffing algorithm for general use. Guided by documented times required per routine procedure, we have developed a robust algorithm to estimate physics staffing needs according to center-specific workload for medical physicists and associated support staff, in a manner we believe is adaptable to an evolving radiotherapy practice.

Evaluation of a thermoplastic immobilization system for breast and chest wall radiation therapy.

We report on the impact of a thermoplastic immobilization system on intra- and interfraction motion for patients undergoing breast or chest wall radiation therapy. Patients for this study were treated using helical tomotherapy. All patients were immobilized using a thermoplastic shell extending from the shoulders to the ribcage.

Calcifications are potential surrogates for prostate localization in image-guided radiotherapy.

Purpose: To investigate the feasibility of using calcifications as surrogates for the prostate position during cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) image-guided radiotherapy.

Methods And Materials: The twice-weekly CBCT images taken during the treatment course of 4 patients were retrospectively studied for the stability of the calcifications. The geometric center of three fiducial markers was used as the reference.