9 Nov : The 13th National Conference of Association of Radiation Therapy Technologists of India was inaugurated yesterday by Prof. K.K. Talwar, Director of PGIMER, Chandigarh. While inaugurating the Conference Dr. Talwar said that radiation therapy technologist plays an important role in imparting precise and accurate radiation therapy to the cancer patients, which can lead to cure of this dreadful disease. He needs to be highly trained so that he can execute a radiotherapy plan for a particular patient with competence. He also stressed on the need of training of more radiation therapy technologists as there is acute shortage because more and more number of radiotherapy centres are coming up everyday. There is need for producing radiation therapy technologists of highest competence to do his job of treating the cancer patients properly. Any amount of radiotherapy planning by the Radiation Oncologist and Medical Physicist will be futile if radiation therapy technologist is not able to execute the same precisely and accurately. Dr. S.C. Sharma, Professor & Head, Dept. of Radiotherapy and RCC, PGIMER, Chandigarh said in his welcome address that radiation therapy technologist is an important member of radiotherapy team apart from radiation oncologist and the medical physicist. The importance and the role of radiation therapy technologist has become much more important after development of highly sophisticated radiotherapy machines, which needs a highly competent and trained radiation therapy technologist. He is role has become much more important in the modern radiotherapy techniques such as 3-D Conformal Radiation Therapy (3-D CRT), Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT), Image Guided Radiation Therapy (IGRT), Stereotactic Radiosurgery (SRS) and Stereotactic Radiotherapy (SRT). Most accurate execution of treatment by radiation therapy technologist is highly important for ultimate cure of different cancers treated by radiation, which is an important modality of cancer treatment used in more than 80% of cancer cases.
Dr. Eduardo Rosenblatt from Division of Human Health, International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna delivering a RGCI & RC, Gunilla Bentel Oration, stressed for the proper training of Radiation therapy technologist, which should impart the knowledge about the radiotherapy machines and various radiotherapy techniques used for the treatment of cancer patients with radiation. He also stressed that the radiotherapy technologist should be compassionate, loving and should handle the patient with great care, who is otherwise sick and should explain to the patient about the procedure he is going to undertake to treat such a patient with radiation.
Mr. P.K. Dash Sharma from Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, Mumbai described in detail the radiation safety measures to be taken in the department of radiotherapy to safeguard the interest of patients, radiation personnel and public in general and discuss the role of radiation therapy technologist in this area. He pointed out that radiation therapy technologist is the first one to know about non-functioning of radiation therapy machine and in case of any radiation accident. He described various measures to be undertaken by a radiation therapy technologist in such a situation.
Dr. D.D. Deshpande and Dr. K.J. Mariadas from Tata Memorial Cancer Hospital and S.G.P.G.I., Lucknow respectively, spoke on the various errors, which can creep up during the radiation therepy treatment of a cancer patient and the measures to be taken by a radiation therapy technologist to correct them so that patient is imparted precise and accurate radiation therapy.
Dr. S.D. Sharma from Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai while speaking on teaching and training of radiation therapy technologist said that India has very few centers for training of these personnel and there is heterogeneity in their curriculum and, therefore, the radiation therapy technologist of un-uniform quality and experience are being produced. He stressed on the need for a dedicated radiation therapy techologist, who should get training for 3 years after 10+2. He also stressed on the need for internship on the lines of medical doctors during the 3rd year of his course, so that he takes a practical training to operate different radiotherapy machines with confidence and to use different radiotherapy techniques accurately and precisely for delivery of radiation therapy to cancer patients.
The two days conference was highly successful and very informative to the radiation therapy technologists, which will definitely help them in improving and sharpening their skill and knowledge to practice imparting radiotherapy treatment to cancer patients and was concluded today.