Review of current status of radiotherapy facilities and assessment of required time for radiotherapy delivery workflow in turkey: On behalf of turkish society for radiation oncology

The aim this study is to evaluate current status and workload of radiotherapy (RT) centers in Turkey, by assessing time and staff required during core treatment procedures in patients with different tumor sites. A survey sent via e-mail to all hospitals that are actively treating patients with RT, that aimed expose the details on type of the techniques being used and the time spent for treatment planning and delivery for the different techniques according to different tumor sites. The results were evaluated by several variables, the type of the center (university hospitals or state-run hospitals) and the number of patients treated per year per center (<1000 patients/year treated vs. ≥1000 patients/year treated). The survey was sent to 48 centers and the return rate was 71% (34 centers). Average daily treatment course performed by one physician was 192 per year (range: 41 - 650). Median number of patients treated by a specialist per year was 210 (range: 79 - 650) in the university hospitals and 101 (range: 41 - 167) in the state-run hospitals. Median time spent for treating a patient with 3-dimensional conformal RT (3DCRT) was 4 h, and it was 5 h 45 min for intensity-modulated RT (IMRT). The time spent for all cancer types treated with 3DCRT and IMRT was higher in state-run hospitals compared to university hospitals. With increasing use of newer RT techniques, the time spent for treating patients increases. Besides adequate equipment, sufficient and well-trained staff is required to achieve these newer RT technique benefits for the patients.