ESTRO 2024 - Abstract Book

S519

Clinical - Breast

ESTRO 2024

Conclusion:

Approximately half of eligible patients were recorded as attending the breast physiotherapy exercise class. Attendance was significantly higher in patients receiving radiotherapy at a satellite centre. Satellite centre patients have a physiotherapy class automatically booked for them, usually on a day they are attending already for radiotherapy. Conversely, patients treated at main site are sent a letter prior to radiotherapy commencement inviting them to book a physiotherapy class by telephoning the department. The automatic booking pathway for the satellite centres removes the administrative burden from the patient and may also signal to the patient that attendance is an important part of the treatment pathway, which may explain higher attendance in this group. Supervised exercise programmes have been shown to be clinically and cost effective in reducing upper limb disability after breast cancer treatment (2). Therefore, further work, including qualitative work with service users, is needed to understand motivation for and barriers to attending, in order to identify strategies to maximise uptake of exercise interventions, particularly for those at highest risk of shoulder dysfunction.

Keywords: Survivorship, Toxicity, Shoulder function

References: