Quality assurance standards drive improvements in the profile of radiation therapy departments participating in trials of the EORTC Radiation Oncology Group

Background and purpose: The Facility Questionnaire (FQ) of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Radiation Oncology Group (EORTC-ROG) evaluates the human, technical and organizational resources at each EORTC member institution. The purpose of this study is to use the FQ database to assess the improvement of radiation therapy (RT) structures and resources within the EORTC compared to the previous surveys performed by our group. Material and methods: We report the content of the current FQ database, completed online by 156 EORTC candidate member institutions from 22 countries between February 2011 and February 2013. Results are compared to FQ-published data from 1992 and 2007. Results: The average number of patients per year per EORTC institution is 2381 (range 350-12,000) an 18.2% increase compared to the 2007 figures. From 2007 to 2013 the average number of radiation oncologists, physicists and radiation technologists per EORTC institution has increased by 27% (from 8.5 to 10.8), 41% (from 5.2 to 7.4) and 38% (from 26.1 to 36.1) respectively. Consequently the number of patients per year per radiation oncologist has decreased from 258 to 243, for physicists from 426 to 354 and for radiation technologists from 107 to 86. One hundred and forty-six (94%) and 101 (65%) institutions can now deliver IMRT and SBRT, compared to 77 (79%) and 53 (54%) in 2007. Conclusions: The standards set by the EORTC-ROG are met by a continually improving number of institutions, helping to safeguard use of advanced technologies in EORTC-ROG clinical trials. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.