ESTRO 2024 - Abstract Book

S5756

RTT - Education, training, advanced practice and role developments

ESTRO 2024

629

Digital Poster

CANNABIS USE BY RADIOTHERAPY PATIENTS IN CANADA: A national survey of Radiation Therapists

Tara Rosewall, Kayli Chen

Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Radiation Therapy, Toronto, Canada

Purpose/Objective:

Canada legalized cannabis in October 2018. It is now estimated that 20% to 40% of cancer patients use cannabis to alleviate symptoms of their disease and/or cope with the side effects of their treatment. Most patients wish to learn more about cannabis from their cancer healthcare team, but most oncology professionals feel too uninformed to make recommendations. The purpose of this research was to understand the experiences, opinions and information needs of Canadian Radiation Therapists when caring for cancer patients who are taking cannabis for therapeutic purposes (CTP).

Material/Methods:

The study employed prospective data collection, via a single cross-sectional web-based questionnaire. After REB approval, the questionnaire was distributed electronically to all Radiation Therapists across Canada. The questionnaire was open for a 1 month accrual, with reminders sent at 2 and 4 weeks. The raw data was aggregated using standard descriptive statistics. The response differences between naturally occurring demographic cohorts was determined using inferential statistics.

Results:

282 Therapists completed the questionnaire (25.6%). 19.1% reported being approached by patients to talk about cannabis more than once per month and 4.4% reported initiating a conversation with patients about cannabis. There were no differences between the provinces or catchment areas regarding how common or socially acceptable cannabis use by patients was. Confidence in discussing cannabis was strongly positively correlated with ratings of current knowledge (r² 0.77). 99.9% of respondents believed that their radiation therapy training did not prepare them to support patients using cannabis.

Conclusion:

The data revealed that patients more frequently seek out guidance for CTP than Therapists initiate those discussions. This lack of Therapist willingness to begin cannabis conversations was associated with the low levels of knowledge. Almost all Therapists recognized the limitations of their knowledge and expressed interest in receiving further information about cannabis. The findings of this study strongly advocate for the development of educational tools to meet Therapists clinical needs.