S2683
RTT - Patient experience and quality of life
ESTRO 2026
References: 1. Fitchett RC, Aldus EJ, Fitchett LR, Cross J. The lived experience of head and neck cancer patients receiving curative radiotherapy: A systematic review and meta- ethnography. Psycho-Oncology. 2018; 27: 2077–2086. https://doi.org/10.1002/pon.47902. Kongwattanakul S, Othaganont P, Chii Tzeng W. The Lived Experiences of Patients with Head and Neck Cancer during Concurrent Chemoradiation Therapy Care Process. Asian Pac J Cancer Prev. 2020 Dec 1;21(12):3669-3675. doi: 10.31557/APJCP.2020.21.12.36693. Braun, V. and Clarke, V. (2021) Thematic Analysis: A Practical Guide. Sage, London.4. The Head and Neck Conference. 4-5 November 2025, Northampton UK Keywords: “Upright radiotherapy”, HNC, “Patient Experience” Reviewing post- operative endometrium patients experience with Online Adaptive Radiotherapy (oART) on Radixact Tomotherapy Katy Lonsdale, Sophie Alexander, Aswathi Alexander, Adriana Guerra, Simrah Jaweria, Susan Lalondrelle, Chandni Patel, Samira Shire, Benjamin Thomas, Shabanaz Boodhoo Radiotherapy, RMH, Sutton, United Kingdom Purpose/Objective: In October 2024, our department introduced an online adaptive radiotherapy (oART) solution for patients with endometrial cancer utilising RayStation’s (RaySearch, Sweden) replanning module on Radixact (Accuray, USA) (1). Patient on couch time for this new adaptive technique is approximately 40-minutes, compared to 10-minutes for our previous standard non-adaptive IGRT technique. All oART patients have a backup IGRT plan, for scheduled machine services or breakdowns. To account for longer on-couch time we modified the patient bladder filling protocol from 350ml 1-hour prior to RT (standard IGRT) to 350ml 30-minutes prior to oART. The aim of this project was to assess patients’ tolerability of the extended on-couch time and the modified bladder filling protocol for oART. Material/Methods: The questionnaire given and collected is from a validated patient-reported treatment experience questionnaire in its original state (2) and assessed situational discomfort, physical discomfort, situational coping, information needs, environmental coping and psychological coping. The questionnaire was Digital Poster 4301 composed of 18 questions, each scored using a 4- point Likert scale with the following options: not at all (0), slightly (1), moderately (2) and very (3). Patients
Conclusion: This study collected perspectives of HNC patients on supine and upright RT approaches. Attitudes to HNC RT were varied and multi-dimensional but there was consensus that their experience of conventional RT was gruelling and highly distressing. Participants endorsed upright radiotherapy as a human solution, with the potential to reduce swallowing/breathing difficulties, enhance comfort, and facilitate radiographer interaction.
were asked to complete the questionnaire immediately after their final RT fraction.The
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