ESTRO meets Asia 2024 - Abstract Book

S353

RTT – Patient care, preparation, immobilisation and IGRT verification protocols

ESTRO meets Asia 2024

39

Proffered Paper

Be what you want to be: an easy way to decrease apprehension in children receiving cranial radiation

Shiv Shankar Mishra 1,2 , Siddhartha Nanda 2

1 Radiation Oncology, Paras HMRI, Patna, India. 2 Radiation Oncology, AIIMS, Raipur, India

Purpose/Objective:

To customise the thermoplastic mask as an easy and cost effective method to decrease apprehension and increase compliance in children receiving cranial radiation.

Material/Methods:

Low-middle income countries contribute approximately 31% to all the brain tumours in the age group of 0-14 years. Among all Asian countries, India contributes a maximum (27.8 %) to the incidence of brain tumours among children less than 9 years of age. [1]

In children, primary central nervous system tumours are one of the most common malignancies, where radiotherapy is used either as radical or adjuvant treatment. [2]

Thermoplastic masks for immobilisation during radiotherapy have shown variable acceptance among children. Thus to make these masks more acceptable to young children, we started working on the concept of customization of thermoplastic masks. By far we have customized masks for ten children (age group 5-11 years) who needed radiation therapy for different brain tumors. We have treated 5 cases with prophylactic cranial irradiation for acute lymphoblastic leukemia, 3 cases of craniopharyngioma and 2 cases of medulloblastoma using these customisations. On the first day of interaction with patients and their parents, we collected information regarding their favorite cartoon or superhero characters. The patients were shown reference images to help them choose one. Thereafter, thermoplastic masks were customized using acrylic paints to draw and permanent markers to outline the cartoon characters like Doremon, Sinchan, Mouse and Mickey Mouse and superhero characters like Batman, Spiderman, Hulk and Iron Man over mask.

(Image 1: Doremon and Spiderman customised thermoplastic masks)