Mould Room Practice

Abstract

A treatment planning suite in a radiotherapy department should be composed of three parts: (1) a simulator, (2) a mould room, and (3) computer planning facilities with access to a CT scanner. These three units should be sited close together and in close physical relationship to the radiotherapy department itself, so that the most efficient use is made of these facilities. The responsibility for treatment planning is a medical one, with close support from the department of medical physics. Radiotherapists, both qualified and in training, should work and plan their treatments (when appropriate) in collaboration with the technicians involved in making moulds and beam-direction shells. Each completed plan should be reproduced using the computer planning facility and this, along with the treatment prescription, should be checked by a physicist. Before the treatment begins, the final approval rests with the treating radiotherapist.