ESTRO 36 Abstract Book

S1012 ESTRO 36 _______________________________________________________________________________________________

Results Two hundred and four male patients were invited and agreed to participate the study. The median age was 53.9 (30-74). Ninety four (46.1%) patients had buccal cancer, 46 nasopharyngeal cancer, 46 oro-hypopharyngeal cancer and 12 laryngeal cancer. One hundred and thirty (63.7%) patients had previous betal quid chewing and 109 (53.4%) had alcohol drinking. One hundred and three patients had surgery, 191 chemotherapy and all had radiotherapy. Thirty four (16.7%) patients had no religion belief and 30 (14.7%) had no job at interview. Sixty two (30.4%) patients had continuing smoking, 18 (8.8%) patients continued drinking and 6 (2.9%) betal quid chewing. Several relationships had been found after analysis. The presence of meaning had positive effect on global quality of life, emotional well-being and total quality of life. Furthermore, the low presence of meaning and high search for meaning exhibited the lowest levels of general quality of life, emotional well-being and total quality of life. The presence of meaning has negative effect on emotional distress. Furthermore the low presence of meaning and high search for meaning exhibited the highest levels of emotional distress. The longer duration of smoking had less levels of presence of meaning and search for meaning. Conclusion Individuals in the high presence of meaning showed a better adaptation. Compared to those survivors having low presence and low searching for meaning, the head and neck cancer survivors having low presence of meaning and high searching for meaning would have the most poorly emotional distress and quality of life. EP-1851 Why is planned palliative radiotherapy often cancelled? A retrospective exploratory study H. Hansen 1 , M. Skovhus Thomsen 2 1 Aarhus University Hospital, Clinic for Radiotherapy and Radiation Oncology, Aarhus C, Denmark 2 Aarhus University Hospital, Department of Medical Physics, Aarhus C, Denmark Purpose or Objective In our department all appointments are booked when the referral is received, i.e. a 100% pre-booking is performed. In 2014-15 every 7th treatment course for patients referred and booked to palliative treatment in our department was cancelled before the planned start of radiotherapy. This study investigated the reasons for cancellations of palliative treatment courses prior to start of radiotherapy as well as possible common denominators among the cancelled patients . Material and Methods A retrospective exploratory study of reasons for cancelling planned palliative radiotherapy treatment was established. Patients were included if they had been booked for palliative radiotherapy treatment between 1January 2015 and 30 June 2015. Two sets of data were collected. Firstly, data on age, gender and diagnosis was collected on all planned palliative radiotherapy treatments (n =787). Secondly, data on all patients who had been cancelled before planned start of treatment (n=105) was obtained. Data on cancelled patients included demographic and clinical data as well as other relevant data recorded in the time between referral to palliative radiotherapy and cancellation. If a patient had been cancelled more than once during the study period data was only collected on the first cancellation. Results Of the 787 planned radiotherapy courses, 106 (13 %) courses were cancelled before planned start of treatment. Of the 106 courses cancelled, one patient accounted for two cancelled treatments. The median time between referral and planned start of treatment for the cancelled

courses was 14 days, showing that the majority of cancelled patients were planned to start radiotherapy much earlier than the maximum time limit of 28 days specified in the Danish legislation. Results of data collected on all planned palliative radiotherapy treatments showed that patients' age, gender and diagnosis did not differ between the courses cancelled before planned start and courses started. Main reasons for cancellation were death before start of treatment, the patient being too weak to start treatment or treatment was no longer relevant. Five of the 33 patients cancelled because they were too weak to receive palliative radiotherapy, died in the time interval between cancellation and the day they were supposed to start treatment. The total number of patients who died before planned start of treatment was 29 (28 %) (Table1).

Conclusion The main reasons for cancelling palliative radiotherapy were the patient either being too weak to receive treatment/ dying before beginning of treatment or because treatment was no longer relevant. The other data collected could not explain the number of patients being cancelled. More knowledge is needed about the differences between patients starting palliative radiotherapy treatment and patients being cancelled before start of treatment. EP-1852 A research interventional clinic within the NHS to enable participation in prostate clinical trials K. Crowther 1 , A. O'Neill 1,2 , S. Murray 3 , J. Cousins 3 , O. Stewart 3 , G. Totten 3 , S. Hynds 3 , K. Parsons 3 , P. Shiels 1 , C. Logan 1 , D. Mitchell 1 , C. Lyons 1 , S. Jain 1,2 1 Cancer Centre- Belfast City Hospital, Radiotherapy, Belfast, United Kingdom 2 Centre for Cancer Research and Cell Biology, Queen's University, Belfast, United Kingdom 3 Belfast City Hospital, Northern Ireland Cancer Trials Network, Belfast, United Kingdom Purpose or Objective Within prostate cancer clinical trials there has been an increasing move towards hypo-fractionated and Stereotactic Ablative Radiotherapy (SABR) regimes. This has led to an increased requirement for Image-Guided Radiotherapy (IGRT). At our centre, it was therefore necessary to implement a service to facilitate the implanting of fiducial markers (FM) and other interventional procedures to enable our participation in such clinical trials. Material and Methods Funding for this service was secured from a research grant. A multi-disciplinary working group of Consultant Clinical Oncologists, Radiographers, Hospital Management, Nurses, Clinical Trials team and Clinical Research Fellows was formed. This group ensured the