ABSTRACT

High-dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy enjoys several unique advantages as compared to external beam radiation therapy including an enhanced therapeutic ratio, smaller setup errors, decreased intrafractional organ motion, avoidance of anatomical changes over the treatment duration, and patient convenience because of fewer fractions. omadsen (2000) noted many of the disadvantages of HDR such as the utilization of a complicated treatment system, the compressed time frame for the procedure, and the delivery of a small number of large fractions, which makes dosimetric corrections unlikely. e disadvantages of HDR therapy can be ameliorated to a large degree by the generation of comprehensive protocols and the utilization of quality assurance (QA) checklists to ensure conformance to protocols. e HDR protocols and QA checklists dene the patient-specic HDR QA activities and are a cornerstone of a comprehensive HDR QA program. is chapter summarizes the process and results of the development of a patient-specic QA program at a large community hospital, which uses written protocols and checklists.