Universitätsklinikum, Würzburg
The Radiation Therapy Department offers a wide variety of state-of-the-art treatment techniques and is part of the oncological center of the Comprehensive Cancer Center Mainfranken. The Medical Physics team is an essential part of the Radiation Therapy Department and consists of 16 physicists, engineers, technicians and precision mechanics.
AddressJosef-Schneider-Str. 11City97080 Würzburg, GermanyMain ContactDr. Otto SauerEmailinfo@i-rt.de for detailsPhoneinfo@i-rt.de for detailsWebpagewww.strahlentherapie.ukw.deLinac5 (Elekta, Siemens)TPSPhilips PinnacleInstall. Date2014-08-21IQM tested onElekta Synergy AgilityIQM related publications This article discusses the influence of the Integral Quality Monitor (IQM) transmission detector on photon beam properties. The authors evaluated data acquired at nine different Radiation Therapy centers and concluded that the magnitudes of changes observed justify treating IQM either as energy-specific tray factors in the treatment planning system or alternatively as a set of modified output factors for each linac energy. Download this article for some valuable guidance for implementing the IQM System into your clinical routine. Sonja Wegener and her colleagues from the University of Würzburg, Germany evaluated the IQM System for IMRT plan QA. The team validated the IQM Calculation algorithm for a wide spectrum of clinical IMRT cases. They then tested the error sensitivity of the IQM System with a variety of induced errors, and compared the error detection capability of the IQM System against their current IMRT QA approaches. The IQM found all the errors detected by their current IMRT approaches and detected several errors that were missed by the other techniques.
Influence of the Integral Quality Monitor transmission detector on high energy photon beams: A multi-centre study
IMRT Plan QA with the IQM detector
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An intriguing device...
John Wong, Ph.D. Head of Radiation Oncology Physics, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA
"This allows everyone to stay ahead of the game of QA."
Stanley Benedict, Ph.D. Professor & Vice Chair of Clinical Physics, Department of Radiation Oncology, University of California at Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center, USA
"IQM constitutes a paradigm shift in treatment verification..."
David Jaffray, Ph.D. Head of Radiation Physics Department, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto, Canada
"The best idea I have seen in years..."
Uwe Götz, Medical Physicist, St. Vincenz Krankenhaus, Limburg, Germany
"A physics tool for the independent verification of the final beam product."
Robert Heaton, Ph.D. Medical Physicist, University of Toronto, Canada
"Measuring with IQM is a piece of cake..."
Lan Lin Ph.D. Medical Physicist, Johns Hopkins Group, Washington, D.C., USA
"I see endless possibilities..."
Henk Huizenga, Ph.D. Head of Radiation Oncology Physics, Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands
"The IQM System is a highly sensitive dose monitoring device.”
Stefania Pallotta, Department of Experimental and Clinical Biomedical Sciences “Mario Serio”, University of Florence, Florence, Italy
"IQM is an especially good candidate for monitoring small fields due to its unique detector design"
David Hoffman, Ph.D., Medical Physicist, University of California San Diego, USA
"Why didn't anybody think of this before?"
A sentence that we hear during almost every presentation.
"Our study demonstrates clinically negligible changesin beam quality and surface dose for all investigated beams.”
Bozidar Casar, Ph.D., Medical Physicist, Institute of Oncology Ljubljana, Slovenia
"The results of our study demonstrate the clear and consistent correlation of the IQM signal with DVH metrics.”
Livia Marrazzo, Medical Physic Unit, Careggi University Hospital, Florence, Italy
"IQM is a key component of our automated treatment quality control and allows us to fully comply with the requirements defined in the 2013/59/EURATOM directive."
Holger Wirtz, Lake Constance Radiation Oncology Center, Singen-Friedrichshafen, Germany
"The quick setup and fully automated handling of all clinical data significantly reduces the time we need for Plan QA. Our clinical evaluation has shown that the error detection capability of the IQM System is at least as good, and in many cases even better, than with conventional 3D phantoms."
Otto Sauer, Ph.D., Head of Medical Physics, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany