%0 Journal Article
%T Application of Statistical Process Control for Setting Action Thresholds as Quality Assurance of Dose Verifications in External Beam Radiotherapy
%A Philip Kioko Ndonye
%A Samuel Nii Adu Tagoe
%J International Journal of Medical Physics,Clinical Engineering and Radiation Oncology
%P 22-35
%@ 2168-5444
%D 2022
%I Scientific Research Publishing
%R 10.4236/ijmpcero.2022.111003
%X <p style=\"margin-left:10.0pt;\">
	<b><span style=\"font-family:&quot;\">Purpose: </span></b><span style=\"font-family:&quot;\">To test the concept of Statistical Process Control (SPC) as a Quality
Assurance (QA) procedure for dose verifications in external beam radiation <span>therapy in conventional and 3D Conformal
Radiotherapy (3D-CRT) treat</span>ment of cervical cancer. <b>Materials and
Methods: </b>A study of QA verification <span>of
target doses of 198 cervical cancer patients undergoing External Beam</span> Ra<span>diotherapy (EBRT) treatments at two different
cancer treatment centers in</span> Kenya <span>was
conducted. The target doses were determined from measured entrance</span> <span>doses by </span></span><span style=\"font-family:&quot;\">the </span><span style=\"font-family:&quot;\">diode <i>in vivo</i> dosimetry. Process Behavior
Charts (PBC) devel</span><span style=\"font-family:&quot;\">oped by SPC were applied for setting Action
Thresholds (AT) on the <span>target doses. </span><span>The AT set w</span></span><span style=\"font-family:&quot;\">as</span><span style=\"font-family:&quot;\"> then
proposed as QA limits for acceptance or rejection of </span><span style=\"font-family:&quot;\">verified target doses overtime of the EBRT process. <b>Result and</b></span><b><span style=\"font-family:&quot;\"> Discussion:</span></b><i><span style=\"font-family:&quot;\"> </span></i><span style=\"font-family:&quot;\">Target
doses for the 198 patients were calculated and SPC applied to test</span><span style=\"font-family:&quot;\"> whether the <span>action limits set by the
Process Behavior Charts could be applied as QA for</span> verified doses in
EBRT. Results for the two sub-groups of n</span><span style=\"font-family:&quot;\"> </span><span style=\"font-family:&quot;\">=</span><span style=\"font-family:&quot;\"> </span><span style=\"font-family:&quot;\">3 and n</span><span style=\"font-family:&quot;\"> </span><span style=\"font-family:&quot;\">=</span><span style=\"font-family:&quot;\"> </span><span style=\"font-family:&quot;\">4 that were tested produced action thresholds which
are within</span><span style=\"font-family:&quot;\"> clini<span>cal dose
specifica</span>tions for both conventional AP/PA and 3D-CRT EBRT treatment
techniques <span>for cervical cancer. <b>Conclusion: </b>Action thresholds set by SPC were within</span> the <span>clinical dose specification of ¡À5% uncertainty for both conventional
AP/PA</span> <span>and 3D-CRT EBRT treatment
techniques for cervical cancer. So the concept</span> of SPC could be applied
in setting QA
%K Quality Assurance
%K Statistical Process Control
%K Action Thresholds
%K Dose  Verification
%K External Beam Radiation Therapy
%U http://www.scirp.org/journal/PaperInformation.aspx?PaperID=114886