Revision of guideline for structure of radiation oncology by the patterns of care study

"Guidelines for Structure of Radiation Oncology in Japan" was revised by referring to annual change of structure and process in Japan and to other international guidelines. These results were published as so called "Japanese Blue Book Guidelines". Number of cancer patients who require radiation is increasing by more than 7% annually. The standard guidelines for annual patient load per FTE radiation oncologist were set at 200 (warning level 300), those per FTE radiation technologist 120 (warning level 200), and those per one external beam equipment 250-350 (warning level 400). As the standards of process, establishment of verifiable information system like radiotherapy database and hospital cancer registration was proposed. Economic analysis showed that enough profit to meet with these guidelines became available recently in most radiotherapy institutions except for the smallest group.