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Recommended procedures and responsibilities for radiosurgery (SRS) and extracranial stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT): report of the SEOR in collaboration with the SEFM

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A Correspondence to this article was published on 07 June 2021

Abstract

Today, patient management generally requires a multidisciplinary approach. However, due to the growing knowledge base and increasing complexity of Medicine, clinical practice has become even more specialised. Radiation oncology is not immune to this trend towards subspecialisation, which is particularly evident in ablative radiotherapy techniques that require high dose fractions, such as stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS), and stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT). The aim of the present report is to establish the position of the Spanish Society of Radiation Oncology (SEOR), in collaboration with the Spanish Society of Medical Physics (SEFM), with regard to the roles and responsibilities of healthcare professionals involved in performing SRS and SBRT. The need for this white paper is motivated due to the recent changes in Spanish Legislation (Royal Decree [RD] 601/2019, October 18, 2019) governing the use and optimization of radiotherapy and radiological protection for medical exposure to ionizing radiation (article 11, points 4 and 5) [1 ], which states: “In radiotherapy treatment units, the specialist in Radiation Oncology will be responsible for determining the correct treatment indication, selecting target volumes, determining the clinical radiation parameters for each volume, directing and supervising treatment, preparing the final clinical report, reporting treatment outcomes, and monitoring the patient’s clinical course.” Consequently, the SEOR and SEFM have jointly prepared the present document to establish the roles and responsibilities for the specialists—radiation oncologists (RO), medical physicists (MP), and related staff —involved in treatments with ionizing radiation. We believe that it is important to clearly establish the responsibilities of each professional group and to clearly establish the professional competencies at each stage of the radiotherapy process.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the Spanish Society of Medical Physics (SEFM) team of reviewers for the work carried out by the following: Facundo Ballester Pallarés (Facultad de Física, Universidad de Valencia), Ignasi Modolell i Farré (Hospital Duran i Reynals, Institut Català d’Oncologia), Núria Jornet Sala (Hospital Universitari de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau), Françoise Lliso Valverde (Hospital Universitari i Politècnic La Fe), Cristina Moreno Saiz (Hospital Universitario de San Cecilio). Their contribution and valuable points of view, have given an inestimable quality to the text. Likewise, we wish to thank the following members of the Spanish Society of Radiological Technologists (AETR): Francisco Morales León (Hospital Universitari i Politècnic La Fe) and Leonor Zazo García (Hospital Universitari i Politècnic La Fe), for their review and considerations on the aspects related to the roles of the Radiation Therapy Technologist. We express our gratitude to all of them for their invaluable collaboration.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiation Oncology, La Fe University and Polytechnic Hospital, Valencia, Spain

    A. J. Conde-Moreno & F. Celada Álvarez

  2. Centro de Protonterapia, Clínica Universidad de Navarra en Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    D. Zucca Aparicio

  3. Department of Radiation Oncology, Fundación Instituto Valenciano Oncología, Valencia, Spain

    M. J. Pérez-Calatayud

  4. Department of Radiation Oncology, Hospital Universitario Ramón y Cajal, Madrid, Spain

    F. López-Campos

  5. Department of Radiation Oncology, Hospital Universitario HM Sanchinarro en Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    C. Rubio Rodríguez

  6. Department of Medical Physics, Hospital Universitario HM Sanchinarro en Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    P. Fernández-Letón

  7. Department of Radiation Oncology, Hospital Clínico Universitario Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

    A. Gómez-Caamaño

  8. Department Radiation Oncology, Hospital Regional Málaga, GenesisCare Málaga, Málaga, Spain

    J. Contreras Martínez

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  1. A. J. Conde-Moreno
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Conde-Moreno, A.J., Zucca Aparicio, D., Pérez-Calatayud, M.J. et al. Recommended procedures and responsibilities for radiosurgery (SRS) and extracranial stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT): report of the SEOR in collaboration with the SEFM. Clin Transl Oncol 23, 1281–1291 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12094-020-02540-2

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