ABSTRACT
Many medico-legal cases involve consideration of whether excessive doses of radiation, or even inadequate doses of radiation, may have been given and if so, what the consequences of such inappropriate doses might be for the patient. Discussion of these issues involves an understanding of quite complex areas of physics involving the nature of the types of radiation used for the treatment of patients and how it interacts with the molecules which form their tissues. In order to provide the necessary background to understanding the more clinical aspects of radiotherapy covered in Chapter 5, this chapter attempts to explain, in relatively simple terms, the nature of radiation, the techniques of delivering an appropriate dose of radiation to the patient in the clinic, how radiation doses are calculated and the practical techniques which allow an even physical radiation dose to be deposited around the tumour whilst sparing relevant critical adjacent organs.
