Abstract ID: 17163 Title: Educational Course Therapy
Katja M. Langen, Niko Papanikolaou, John Balog, Richard Crilly, David Followill,
S. Murty Goddu, Walter Grant III, Gustavo Olivera, Chester R. Ramsey, Chengyu
Shi
Helical tomotherapy is a relatively new modality with integrated treatment planning and
delivery hardware for radiation therapy treatments. In view of the uniqueness of the
hardware design of the helical tomotherapy unit and its implications in routine clinical
practice, the Therapy Physics Committee (TPC) of the American Association of
Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) commissioned Task Group 148 (TG-148) to review this
modality and make recommendations for quality assurance related methodologies. This
report summarizes the findings of the Task Group and aims to provide the practicing
clinical medical physicist with the insight into the technology that is necessary to
establish an independent and comprehensive quality assurance program for a helical
tomotherapy unit. In this task group report an overview of the TomoTherapy system and
its unique aspects is provided. Delivery, imaging, and treatment planning quality
assurance are discussed in three separate chapters of this report. Lastly quality assurance
aspects are summarized according to their recommended frequency.