Ning J. Yue, PhD, ProfessorTing Chen, PhD, Assistant ProfessorWei Zou, PhD, Assistant Professor
Modern radiation treatments have become fairly complex and involve in utilizing a variety
of medical devices to achieve the goal of providing conformal radiation dose coverage to the tumor
target(s) while maximizing the sparing of normal organ structures. Recently, different forms of linear
accelerators/radioactive source based machines have been invented and developed with the aim of
providing improved treatments and more treatment options. Besides linear accelerators (Linac) that
have been undergoing constant improvement and advancement and can deliver fairly complicated
dose distribution patterns, imaging systems, computer information and calculation systems have
been more and more integrated into radiotherapy processes. To bring radiotherapy to a potentially
higher level, many institutions have either acquired or started to consider particle therapy, especially
proton therapy. The complexity of modern radiotherapy demands in-depth understanding of radiation
physics and machine engineering as well as computer information systems.
This paper is intended to provide an introductory description of radiation oncology and related
procedures, and to provide an overview of the current status of medical devices in radiotherapy in
the United States of America. This paper covers the radiation delivery systems, imaging systems,
treatment planning systems, record and verify systems, and QA systems.