ESTRO 2024 - Abstract Book

S5770

RTT - Education, training, advanced practice and role developments

ESTRO 2024

Since January 2022, our institute offers deep hyperthermia (HT) in order to enhance radiation dose efficacy. HT improves the efficacy of radiotherapy (RT) if delivered within 60 minutes. The role of the Radiation Therapy Technicians (RTTs) in guaranteeing an easier clinical workflow as possible, being crucial for its efficacy. During this time, RTTs have improved and modified some steps in order to decrease the timing of HT workflow and obtain the best standard of care

Material/Methods:

All HT treatments were performed with the ALBA 4D (MedLogix®, Rome,Italy) twice a week. The steps considered were as follow: 1) CT simulation and patient positioning taking account of particular expedients as probes and water bolus. 2) planning in collaboration with physicians and physics. 3) thermometry through verification and controlling the right probe position during therapies. 4) monitoring the pain of the patient in collaboration with nurses 5) changing and verification of machine parameters to guarantee the best performance. Over the past two years, each step has been improved and modified to ensure the smoothest possible workflow.

Results:

To date, more than 35 patients and 140 treatments have been delivered with RT-HT combination. No adverse event has been reported. With respect to 2022, the time between the radiation therapy (Beam off time) and the start of HT treatment has been optimized during 2023, lowering the mean time from 40.2 (± 4.2 SD) to 25.3( ± 2.4 SD) minutes. The overall RT-HT mean timing decreased to 90 (± 6.6 SD) minutes. At the same time we trained more RTTs, from 4 to 6. Several steps of the flow were improved by transferring experience and sharing with the whole team (dedicated physicians, physicists and nurses). Moreover, given our unique setup (Magnetic Resonance (MR) and HT in the same bunker) and the various ongoing research studies, it will be possible to further improve all these steps with the introduciotn of MRI from planning to post-treatment verification.

Conclusion:

With the introduction of HT technology in our department, RTTs have seen a significant evolution in their role. Considering the different therapeutic approach to the patient and integrating additional equipment, such as MR, adequate training and practical experience are essential in order to optimize the process. Only through this continuous improvement, we can face the complexity of these new methods

Keywords: hyperthermia, workflow, timing

1282

Mini-Oral

The role of RTTs in Italy: a national survey on professional competences and educational standards

Mattia Nicoletto 1 , Marco Fusella 1 , Marco Ciro Schifano 1 , Erick Maffi 1 , Alberto Zambelli 2 , Manuel Anelli 3