ESTRO 2024 - Abstract Book

S5660

RTT - Patient experience and quality of life

ESTRO 2024

[1] Sitlinger A, Zafar SY. Health-Related Quality of Life: The Impact on Morbidity and Mortality. Surg Oncol Clin N Am. 2018 Oct;27(4):675-684. doi: 10.1016/j.soc.2018.05.008. Epub 2018 Jul 21. PMID: 30213412; PMCID: PMC6428416. [2] Basch E, Jia X, Heller G, Barz A, Sit L, Fruscione M, Appawu M, Iasonos A, Atkinson T, Goldfarb S, Culkin A, Kris MG, Schrag D. Adverse symptom event reporting by patients vs clinicians: relationships with clinical outcomes. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2009 Dec 2;101(23):1624-32. doi: 10.1093/jnci/djp386. Epub 2009 Nov 17. PMID: 19920223; PMCID: PMC2786917. [3] Bhattacharya IS, Haviland JS, Hopwood P, Coles CE, Yarnold JR, Bliss JM, Kirby AM; IMPORT Trialists. Can patient reported outcomes be used instead of clinician-reported outcomes and photographs as primary endpoints of late normal tissue effects in breast radiotherapy trials? Results from the IMPORT LOW trial. Radiother Oncol. 2019 May;134:220-230. doi: 10.1016/j.radonc.2019.01.036. Epub 2019 Feb 28. PMID: 31005219; PMCID: PMC6486395.

1103

Digital Poster

Patient perspectives on upright radiotherapy

Tracy SA Underwood 1,2 , Robert M Appleyard 3 , Janet Ulman 3 , Catherine Holborn 3 , Sarah Smith 3 , Stephanie Hill 3 , Simon Ingram 1 , Ross Tierney 1 , Jemma Nunn 1 , Gordon Sands 1 , Heidi Probst 3 1 Leo Cancer Care Ltd, Research Department, Horley, United Kingdom. 2 University College London, Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, London, United Kingdom. 3 Sheffield Hallam University, College of Health, Wellbeing and Life Sciences, Sheffield, United Kingdom

Purpose/Objective:

Treatments which combine fixed radiation beams with rotating, upright patient positioning systems have been investigated since the 1950s [1]. However, recently there has been increased interest in this topic [2]. Upright, gantry-less radiotherapy has the potential to reduce equipment costs, shielding and the 3D footprint of treatment bunkers, for all radiation modalities [3,4]. Positioning and immobilisation have been identified as important contributors to overall patient comfort during radiotherapy [5]. Yet thus far little data has been published on patient perspectives on upright body positioning [6,7].

Material/Methods:

After Research Ethics Committee approval, in-person workshops were conducted with volunteers who had completed external beam radiotherapy for either primary breast cancer (n=10) or primary prostate cancer (n=11). Each workshop was tumour-site specific and included: (1) A guided, group discussion covering the participants’ experiences of radiotherapy and their broader cancer treatment pathway. Visual notes were captured through live-drawing and discussions were recorded/transcribed. (2) Participant trials with a static demonstration version of the Eve robotic upright patient positioning system (Leo Cancer Care Ltd), during individual ~30min appointments, including questionnaires.