ESTRO 2024 - Abstract Book

S2849

Interdisciplinary - Health economics & health services research

ESTRO 2024

To assess the differences in evidence and outcomes for different types of interventions, a bibliometrics study was designed to provide an overview of radiotherapy therapy research output for a range of representative radiotherapy interventions. This abstract presents a preliminary analysis of endpoints and study designs in radiotherapy research abstracts.

Material/Methods:

A bibliometric analysis of radiation therapy research outputs between 2012-2021 was performed in the Web of Science database. Full methodology was published for a previous bibliometrics study by Aggarwal et al. (1) Additional filters were created to select a representative group of twenty-five radiotherapy interventions from the dataset. These interventions and the filters were determined in iterative rounds by a multidisciplinary group of radiotherapy experts (including backgrounds in clinical radiotherapy, physics, RTT, health services research and health economy) and a bibliometrician (GL). Data were extracted using a predefined data collection form. Relevant research designs and outcomes were identified based on previous work by the Health Economics in Radiation Oncology program of the European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology value-based healthcare (ESTRO-HERO) group. (1, 2) The data collection form was formulated and revised by three authors (AA, YL, MV) after two initial rounds of coding for random sampling of 500 abstracts, ensuring a representation of all twenty-five interventions.

For this preliminary analysis, data from 2884 abstracts are included representing twenty-three of the twenty-five interventions. Statistical analysis was done using IBM® SPSS® Statistics 29.0 software.

Results:

Abstracts were reviewed for features of research design (evaluating 26 determinants, including trial design, pro- or retrospective data collection, randomisation, indication, etc.) and endpoints (evaluating 12 determinants, including clinical endpoints such as locoregional control, survival, toxicity; operational or economic endpoints such as time related or resource outcomes; and accuracy, dosimetry, physics or quality assessment endpoints, etc). Abstracts were grouped using a proposed categorisation decision tree of interventions based on radio-therapy specific aspects, currently being developed in a mixed-method approach by the ESTRO-HERO value-based healthcare (VBHC) project, as follows: • Group I includes a total of 17 abstracts for 2 interventions (including AI-based planning and AI-based autocontouring). • Group II includes a total of 85 abstracts for 2 interventions (including MRI-Linac and Cyberknife). • Group III includes a total of 1823 abstracts for 8 interventions (including IGRT, tomotherapy, rectal spacers etc.). • Group IV includes a total of 959 abstracts for 11 interventions (including hypofractionation, SBRT, proton radiotherapy etc.) Analysis of research design for each group is presented in Fig. 1 and shows the proportion of abstracts of each group reported as formal clinical trials (phase I-II-III-IV studies), other prospective designs (any prospective design except phase I-II-III-IV studies), retrospective studies (any retrospective design), or non-pre-clinical designs (e.g. animal studies, phantom studies, in vitro studies etc.). Proportions per group vary between 0%-8.9% for clinical