ASTRO’s Commitment to Safety and Quality in Radiation Oncology
Safety is central to ASTRO’s mission, culture and day-to-day work. Our Target Safely initiative encompasses a variety of efforts to ensure that radiation therapy is safe and effective for patients, and to keep clinicians up to date on the latest treatment techniques and technologies.
Below are highlights of ASTRO’s work in radiation safety and quality:
Our national accreditation program, ASTRO’s APEx - Accreditation Program for Excellence®, assesses compliance with rigorous quality and safety standards for radiation oncology facilities. More than 450 radiation oncology facilities have earned APEx accreditation and is the fastest-growing program of its kind.
The ASTRO-supported RO-ILS: Radiation Oncology Incident Learning System® is one of the few specialty-specific national safety reporting systems. The data generated by RO-ILS helps inform education and strengthen safeguards across the specialty.
Our safety reference guide, “Safety Is No Accident,” provides a comprehensive framework of safety and quality protocols for radiation treatment teams.
Our series of Safety White Papers summarize best practices for specific areas of clinical practice such as image guided radiation therapy and stereotactic radiosurgery, and emerging treatments like adaptive radiation therapy and radiopharmaceutical therapy.
Patient-friendly information on radiation safety is available via RT Answers, including a Questions to Ask booklet for patients and caregivers.
Find more information about ASTRO’s commitment to safety and quality via the following resources:
Read about our efforts for Patient Safety Awareness Week.
Blog Post: Radiation Oncology’s Leadership in Safe Patient Care (ASTROblog, 2026)
Editorial: Looking Backward and Forward: Learning From and Updating the ASTRO Safety White Papers 10 Years Later (Practical Radiation Oncology, 2023)
Article: 10 Years of RO-ILS: Collaboration and Improvement for Patient Safety (ASTROnews, Summer 2024)
Info for ASTRO members: Safety and Quality hub, Peer-to-Peer Match Program, Authorized User (AU) Training Centers for radiopharmaceutical therapy
