Radiotherapy and Brachytherapy

This book reports the majority of lectures given during the NATO Advanced Study Institute ASI-982996, which was held at the European Scientific Institute of Archamps (ESI, Archamps - France) from November 15 to November 27, 2007. The ASI course was structured in two parts: the first was dedicated to what is often called "e;teletherapy"e;, i. e. radiotherapy with external beams, while the second focused on internal radiotherapy, also called "e;brachytherapy"e; or "e;curietherapy"e; in honour of Madame Curie who initiated the technique about a century ago. This ASI took place after the European School of Medical Physics, which devoted a 3 week period to medical imaging, a subject complementary to the topics of this book. Courses devoted to nuclear medicine and digital imaging techniques are collected in two volumes of the NATO Science Series entitled "e;Physics for Medical Imaging Applications"e; (ISBN 978-1-4020-5650-5) and "e;Molecular imaging: computer reconstruction and practice"e; (ISBN 978-1-4020- 8751-6). Every year in autumn ESI organises the European School of Medical Physics, which covers a large spectrum of topics ranging from Medical Imaging to Radiotherapy, over a period of 5 weeks. Thanks to the Cooperative Science and Technology sub-programme of the NATO Science Division, weeks four and five were replaced this year by the ASI course dedicated to "e;Physics of Modern Radiotherapy & Brachytherapy"e;. This allowed the participation of experts and students from 20 different countries, with diverse cultural background and p- fessional experience.