Statement from RC Cancer Centers Regarding Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s Recommendations about Radiation Therapy Devices

ATLANTA, Ga. (April 27, 2010) – Radiotherapy Clinics of Georgia, specialists in providing radiation therapy for cancer patients, is committed to the highest safety standards for treatment planning and usage of medical linear accelerators and ancillary devices. Radiotherapy Clinics of Georgia supports the need to comply with strict safety standards as recently mentioned in the April 9, 2010 issue of the New York Times, “F.D.A. Toughens Process for Radiation Equipment” and challenges industry leaders to “raise the bar” as safety standards in all areas of radiation therapy treatment.

Timothy D. Pethel, a board-certified radiation oncology physicist with Radiotherapy Clinics of Georgia said “that all Radiotherapy Clinics of Georgia facilities use the Six Sigma methodology to improve safety and quality, assuring that patients are treated on equipment that exceeds recommended safety standards and we applaud FDA efforts to improve safety standards. The internal safety standards set by Radiotherapy Clinics of Georgia should be the model for all radiation facilities.”

Onsite Radiotherapy Clinics of Georgia’ radiation oncologists are involved in every patient’s treatment. They review and approve patient treatment plans in addition to the medical physicists and dosimetrists before any patient is treated. Radiotherapy Clinics of Georgia is committed to a quality improvement process that establishes best practices for care and safety to ensure the highest quality patient radiation therapy planning and delivery and measures itself to a set of Six Sigma metrics higher than industry standards set at a percentage measurement.

Sandy Gregory, M.D., a medical director at Radiotherapy Clinics of Georgia added, “Radiotherapy Clinics of Georgia adheres to some of the strictest quality assurance metrics in the industry. I believe our commitment to Six Sigma methodologies may be one of the first in the industry. Each part of the treatment process is analyzed to reduce treatment error and ensure patient safety. Radiotherapy Clinics of Georgia is committed to giving its cancer patients access to the most advanced technology and the most state of the art quality systems available. Our physicians and clinical staff receive comprehensive training and complete certification programs to ensure the use of accurate dosage and delivery of radiation therapy at all of our cancer treatment centers.” In addition, she said, “we are unique in our commitment to having three quality safeguards in place that center around – controls, our physicians and our technology.”

In addition to normal safety checks, Radiotherapy Clinics of Georgia performs multi-leaf calibration testing on our linear accelerators to confirm beam energy, flatness and symmetry, as well as mechanical and optical calibrations. Monthly equipment calibration checks are conducted, peer reviewed and then approved. Board-certified medical physicists perform yearly linear accelerator calibration to ensure proper delivery doses of radiation. This calibration is then confirmed by the Radiological Physics Center based out of MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. In addition, the Radiotherapy Clinics of Georgia’ staffing model for radiation therapy includes having two registered radiation therapists working together to cross-verify patient treatment set-up and parameters.

To continue this safeguard process, Radiotherapy Clinics of Georgia uses a number of external software technologies that create a patient treatment plan separate from our linear accelerator. The software applications used incorporate the patient plan, calculate the radiation that each patient should receive before the patient is treated and then compare it to the actual plan as prescribed by the physician-approved treatment plan This quality initiative ensures accurate and safe patient planning and treatment delivery at all Radiotherapy Clinics of Georgia locations.

Michael Holton, chief operating office for Radiotherapy Clinics of Georgia, said, “The physicians, staff and directors of Radiotherapy Clinics of Georgia feel it is important our patients know that radiation therapy has proved to be a valid and effective treatment option for cancer patients. We highly applaud efforts to improve safety standards and efforts to ensure all organizations strive for the highest quality and safety standards as exists here at Radiotherapy Clinics of Georgia.”