ESTRO 2025 - Abstract Book

S4284

RTT - Service evaluation, quality assurance and risk management

ESTRO 2025

Conclusion: Service users specify a range of preferences for how they wish to be informed of CT’s, alongside motivations for engaging with such research. Willingness to participate varies by demography and therefore departments should analyse patient factors to optimise trial enrolment offerings.

Keywords: Clinical Trials, Equity, Inclusion

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Poster Discussion A new sustainability framework for radiotherapy departments. Sophie EM Raby 1 , Sara Lightowlers 2 , Arafat Mirza 3 , Jani Zankhana 4 , Louise Turtle 5 , Joanna Hughes 5 , Stephen Tozer Loft 6 , Robert Chuter 7 1 Clinical Oncology, The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester, United Kingdom. 2 Clinical Oncology, The University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom. 3 Clinical Oncology, Lancashire Teaching Hospital, Preston, United Kingdom. 4 Radiotherapy, The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, London, United Kingdom. 5 Radiotherapy, The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust, Liverpool, United Kingdom. 6 Radiotherapy Physics, Sheffield Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Sheffield, United Kingdom. 7 Radiotherapy Physics, University of Manchester and the Christie NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester, United Kingdom Purpose/Objective: Healthcare currently contributes 4-5% of global greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, contributing to the climate crisis to which oncology patients may be particularly vulnerable. The UK Radiotherapy Board environmental sustainability working group (RTBES) aims to reduce the carbon footprint of radiotherapy and includes members of the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine, The Royal College of Radiologists and the Society of Radiographers. We have developed a ‘Green Radiotherapy’ Framework to systematize actions radiotherapy departments can take to reduce their environmental impact and help educate and motivate the workforce. Material/Methods: We used a trimodal approach to develop the framework. Firstly, we undertook a national survey 1 to identify strategies that radiotherapy centres are already taking to mitigate their carbon footprint. Secondly, we sought guidance from other national groups such as Green ED 2 launched in 2023 and now in used in >25 UK emergency departments. Lastly, we performed a comprehensive literature review to find publications related to the environmental footprint of cancer treatments. Results: Our national survey identified 18 projects already being undertaken in the UK to reduce the carbon footprint of radiotherapy centres 1 . The main themes of these included reducing patient and staff travel (e.g remote radiotherapy video reviews and contouring), recycling (e.g of PPE), reducing energy and resource use (e.g turning off LINACs overnight, paperless planning) and reuse (e.g reusable bottles for bladder pre-filling). Amongst the literature, the most consistently recommended strategy is hypofractionation; a number of sources of emissions related to radiotherapy, significantly patient travel, rise linearly with number of fractions 3,4 . Using the above results, we organised the ‘Green Radiotherapy’ framework into ‘bronze’, ‘silver’ and ‘gold’ levels (figure1). Gold level actions may be more complex or challenging for departments to implement but are likely to have greater impact. Conversely, bronze level actions are generally easier to implement but lower impact. Figure1:Summary of key actions within the framework.