The Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO) is a leading comprehensive cancer centre of excellence. VHIO’s scientists and research physicians adopt a purely translational research model, working together as multidisciplinary teams to both accelerate and advance personalized and targeted therapies against cancer Vall d’Hebron University Hospital (VHUH) is the largest hospital in Barcelona and the second largest in Spain; it includes various facilities that cover almost all medical and surgical specialities, it has more than 1400 beds, and employs over 6000 people. The Vall d’Hebron University Hospital campus also houses various teaching centers, a medical school, public health facilities, research centers, laboratories and other complementary facilities.

Medical Physics and Radiation Protection Department (MPRP) is a multidisciplinary team of professionals with medical physicists, dosimetrist and imaging technicians, and experts RP technician. The MPRP is accredited by the Nuclear Safety Council to carry all aspects of radiation protection of the hospital and is ISO9001: 2015 certified.

MPRT staff participate in the quality assurance commissions of all the services that use ionising radiation for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes in the hospital which are the Nuclear Medicine, Radiation Oncology and Radiology Departments. It also carries out personal dosimetry for the 400 radiation-exposed workers in the hospital and radiological protection of patients by optimizing the dose in clinical procedures.

The Radiation Oncology Department treats around 1900 per year, of which 5% are patients under 15 years. It is the reference center in Catalonia for children’s radiotherapy. All modern RT techniques such as volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT), stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT), radiosurgery (RC), total body irradiation (TBI) are available. Image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT) and adaptive radiotherapy (ART) protocols are applied in gynecologic and head and neck treatments.

Nuclear Medicine is the reference center in Catalonia for molecular therapy in adult and pediatric patients. It routinely performs highly complex procedures such as neuroendocrine therapy with ¹⁷⁷Lu and liver cancer treatment with microspheres of ⁹⁰Y, and soon with ¹⁶⁶Ho as well.

All departments participate in the VHIO research projects contributing their experience in the different fields of medical application of ionising radiation. The fact that the hospital has advanced technology that allows carrying out emerging treatment techniques, reveals different problems that these new therapies may entail in terms of PR. For example, the use of new radiopharmaceuticals in oncology raises different aspects of RP such as the protection of the relatives of patients, workers, and waste management and, probably the most relevant aspect, the distribution of the dose in the patient that allows to personalize the activity administered according to dosimetric criteria.

Our experience in this field can contribute to detecting the aspects where it is necessary to investigate in order to obtain sufficient scientific evidence to determine protocols for action in RP. In the same line, the implementation of advanced radiotherapy techniques set out various aspects of RP that are not resolved as standard. Our experience at the local level can help define and standardize the criteria for justification and optimization of this type of techniques. Our organization, thanks to the high number of patients it treats, can contribute to providing a significant volume of data in radiology and in oncological treatments with ionising radiation. Highlighting the treatments of radiotherapy and molecular therapy in pediatric patients where, due to the low number of cases, it is difficult to obtain data that allow a good statistical treatment.