What is radiotherapy?
Radiotherapy involves treating cancers using ionising radiation. The ionising radiation dose is divided into small portions or fractions that are administered over a given period of time in order to maximise the destruction of cancerous cells and minimise damage to normal healthy tissue. For most cancers, the ionising radiation is administered on machine known as linear particle accelerator (linacs).
Radiotherapy treatment process can be described as a serial process. The process starts after referral in the planning unit (where digital images and radiographs are taken), goes through the pre-treatment unit (where a treatment plan for the patient is created and checked for errors), and then ends in the treatment unit (where the fractions prescribed in the treatment plan are delivered on a linac).
The main aim of radiotherapy is to minimise patient waiting times. Waiting time is the time between making the decision to treat to the delivery of the first fraction in the treatment unit. Normally, this is the time when the details of the patients are received in the planning unit to the time when they start treatment.
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