Modern radiotherapy : advances and challenges in radiation protection of patients
(Paris, France, 2 - 4 December 2009)

The use of ionizing radiation in medicine has led to major improvements in the diagnosis and treatment of human diseases. While bringing new benefits for cancer treatment, modern radiotherapy also poses new challenges in terms of radiation protection of patients. Prevention of radiotherapy incidents and accidents is a major issue in this area.

After severe accidents occurred in France since 2006, the French Nuclear Safety Authority has taken several initiatives to strengthen the control of radiotherapy centers (inspection) and the regulation (quality assurance). ASN has set up a system of event notification and a severity scale to rate patient related events. At international level, several initiatives on the topic of safety of medical practices involving ionizing radiations have been already taken or are in preparation.

Objectives

The major objective of the conference is to provide a platform for exchanging experience, and reviewing the actions implemented to improve the radiation safety in radiotherapy both at national and international level. As a result of the conference is expected :

• to reach a consensus about the necessity to strengthen existing international actions for prevention of incidents and accidents,
• to set up an international cooperation to improve management for overexposed patients, • to outline a strategy for strengthening regulation,
• to contribute to the elaboration of an international scale to rate patient related events for communication and reporting purpose.

Main Topics

The topics that will be covered in the conference include the following :

• Paradigms of external radiotherapy, new techniques and new treatments, risks profiles
• Complications in radiotherapy (adverse and side effects, deterministic or stochastic effects, second cancer, incidents and accidents)
• Risk acceptability in radiotherapy
• Lessons learned from previous accidents: overview and typology
• Incident reporting systems
• Equipment safety, staffing, education and training
• Regulatory activities, clinical audits, controls and quality assurance

Round table discussions on patient information, severity scale to rate events and communication transparency will be held. Invited lectures on specific topics (e.g. treatment of complications and overexposure, individual radiosensitivity) will be organised.

Conference organization

Audience
The conference will be of interest to individual and organizations involved in the field of safety in radiotherapy, in particular: health and safety authorities, health professionals, patient associations and medical devices manufacturers.

Conference structure and deadlines

• Contributions : The conference welcomes all contribution in the field of safety in radiation therapy. The conference plenary sessions will be comprised of selected oral presentations, invited lectures and round tables. Submitted papers will be also exhibited as posters and authors will be ready to discuss their work in various sessions.

• Conference language : The main language will be English; a simultaneous translation in French will be organized.

• Download the conference brochure

• For further details, please contact the Conference secretary at:
  conference-radiotherapy@asn.fr