Radiotherapy patient anxiety: its correlation with treatment setup and reduction with medical physicist consultations

Background and study aims

It is known that up to half of radiotherapy patients experience heightened anxiety and distress. This can lead to a lower quality of life, worse side effects, and even lower survival. With the general trend of radiotherapy treatment regimes getting shorter, patients have less time to get accustomed to the daunting environment and machines. Therefore, approaches for a renewed focus on patient-centred care are needed. This research proposes an additional patient appointment with a medical physicist. These staff, traditionally having no direct patient care, take responsibility for aspects ranging from maintenance and calibration of treatment machines, quality assurance and legislative compliance, to treatment planning. They have a unique overview of the radiotherapy pathway, and the proposed intervention will aim to address patients’ questions on technical aspects of their care.

Primary objective

To determine if an additional patient consultation with a medical physicist influences patient-reported anxiety compared to standard of care (no consultation with a medical physicist).

Secondary objectives

1. To determine whether the magnitude of patient set-up errors correlate with patient-reported anxiety.
2. To determine whether data reported by Surface Guided Radiotherapy (such as surface variability) correlate with patient-reported anxiety.
3. To determine whether there is a difference in technical satisfaction between the intervention and control arms.
4. To determine if treatment adherence (attendance, treatment preparation such as bladder filling) is influenced by having more technical information.
5. To collate patient questions and report common themes
6. To explore patient experiences, including their interest in physicist consultations as a clinical service, and their information requirements.
7. To determine the staff time requirement for physicist consultations

Outputs

ESTRO 2025 poster on the results of the patient involvement questionnaire results.

Presentation at the IPEM SW Physics meeting on the experiences of opening a clinical trial in June 2025 (associated SCOPE article to be published in the winter 2025 edition).