@misc{oai:repo.qst.go.jp:00071046,
 author = {Fukumura, Akifumi and et.al and 福村 明史},
 month = {Feb},
 note = {Introduction: The first particle beam therapy equipment QA guideline [1] was published from Japan in 2005. However, the QA procedure, tolerance values, action levels, etc. which QMP (qualified medical physicist) should perform periodically are not included in the guideline. Therefore we are renewing the QA guideline for particle beam therapy equipment of broad beam technique such as passive scattering. Particle beam considered in this guideline is proton and carbon.
Method: Three proton and two carbon facilities which have different manufactured particle therapy equipment were picked up, and one or two QMP from each institution organized to summarize QA procedure based on the QA policy of each institution and reports published by AAPM or ICRU.
Result: AAPM TG-142 [2] provides three action levels and specifies the tolerances for each procedure associated with levels 2 and 3, except level 1. On the other hand, in this guideline provides two action levels and specifies tolerances for each action level. One is "inspection action level" which is out of acceptance test value; however that has no affects for treatment. The other is "immediate action level" which may affect treatment and need to take an immediate decision, i.e. limited treatment or stop treatment.
Conclusion: Since particle therapy machine has a wide variety compared to conventional electron linacs, it was difficult to construct the QA procedure for all particle equipment. Future issues we have to consider as a next guideline is QA about the particle beam planning systems and the active scanning method. 
References: 
[1]Japanese Society of Medical Physics, Task G; Particle Therapy Research Center of Heavy Ion Radiotherapy, National Institute of Radiological Sciences: Guidelines of Physical and Technological Quality Assurance for Particle Beam Therapy, 2005
[2]AAPM Task Group 142: Quality assurance of medical accelerators, Med. Phys. 36, 4197-4212, 2009., Third International Conference on Real-time Tumor-tracking Radiation Therapy with 4D Molecular Imaging Technique},
 title = {QA Guideline for Particle Beam Therapy Equipment},
 year = {2013}
}