ESTRO 2025 - Abstract Book

S145

Invited Speaker

ESTRO 2025

By embedding patient partnership into routine clinical practice, radiation oncology can strengthen patient empowerment, improve care navigation, and foster a truly collaborative care model that benefits both patients and healthcare providers.

Impact on Research and Innovation

Beyond clinical care, patient partnership extends to research and innovation in radiation oncology. Patients increasingly contribute to study design, ensuring that research aligns with real-world priorities. Their involvement enhances recruitment strategies, improves study feasibility, and helps define meaningful clinical outcomes. By collaborating with patient partners, researchers can develop more patient-friendly interventions that ultimately improve care effectiveness.

Implementing a Patient Accompaniment Program

Ensuring the sustainability, safety, and integration of patient partnership in radiation oncology requires the establishment of clear guidelines and a structured framework. A step-by-step approach is essential for developing a patient accompaniment program, encompassing best practices for recruitment, training, integration into clinical teams, and ongoing evaluation. Standardizing patient involvement through a well-defined program fosters consistency, enhances collaboration, and strengthens both patient and provider confidence in the process. By implementing structured mechanisms, healthcare institutions can facilitate meaningful patient engagement while maintaining high standards of care and ensuring long-term adoption within oncology practice.

Challenges and Future Directions

Despite its benefits, patient partnership faces barriers such as time constraints, provider skepticism, and varying levels of patient health literacy. Addressing these challenges requires cultural shifts in clinical practice, provider training, and supportive policies. Emerging technologies, including telehealth, patient portals, and mobile health applications, offer new opportunities to facilitate continuous engagement and overcome logistical barriers. As healthcare policies increasingly recognize the value of patient involvement, radiation oncology is poised to integrate patient partnership as a standard practice, leading to more effective, personalized, and patient-driven cancer care.

Conclusion

Patient partnership is transforming radiation oncology by fostering collaboration, improving adherence, and driving innovation in care and research. By embracing this model, the field can enhance patient experiences, optimize treatment outcomes, and advance the future of personalized oncology care.

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Speaker Abstracts Radiotherapy as a mean to reprogram tumour microenvironment: Can it counteract immunosuppression? Inigo Martinez Dpt Clinical Medicine, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway

Abstract:

Radiotherapy (RT) has emerged as a promising partner to immunotherapy due to its dual tumoricidal and immune stimulatory properties. Preclinical observations have shown that localized RT can induce regression of non irradiated lesions, a phenomenon known as abscopal effect. This phenomenon is partly due to RT's ability to ignite adaptive antitumor immune responses through the induction of immunogenic cell death, the liberation of tumor-