Radiotherapy for people with cancer: What do written information materials tell them? — ASN Events
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Radiotherapy for people with cancer: What do written information materials tell them? (#259)

Sian K. Smith 1 , Ben Yan 2 , Chris Milross 2 3 , Haryana M. Dhillon 2 4
  1. Psychosocial Research Group, Prince of Wales Clinical School, University of New South Wales, Randwick, NSW, Australia
  2. University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
  3. Chris O'Brien Lifehouse, Sydney, NSW, Australia
  4. Centre for Medical Psychology & Evidence-based Decision-making, School of Psychology, Faculty of Science, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Background: People undergoing radiation therapy for cancer need information to participate in treatment decision-making, prepare for treatment and manage side effects and follow-up care. Few studies have assessed how comprehensive written radiotherapy information is, in addressing patients’ information needs.

Aim: To review the content of written information materials available to patients through Australian radiotherapy hospital departments and cancer control organisations.

Method: A coding framework, informed by previous studies examining the information needs of patients undergoing radiotherapy, wasdeveloped and applied to the patient information materials. The final coding framework included a total of 71 categories, which fell into 11 broad themes: cancer diagnosis, preparing for treatment, treatment planning, daily treatment information, external radiotherapy, internal radiotherapy, impact on daily activities, post-treatment, prognosis, psychosocial health and well-being, and finally, ‘extra content,’ which includes sections such as glossaries and question prompt sheets. Our analysis compared and contrasted how different information sources, namely (i) hospital radiotherapy departments vs cancer control organisations and, (ii) generic vs tumour specific materials addressed patients’ information needs. 

Results: A total of 54 information resources were included in the final analysis.Overall, general radiotherapy information available from cancer control organisations was more comprehensive than materials available at radiotherapy departments (p<0.001). Hospital department sources provided more information about the logistics of undergoing treatment compared to resources produced by cancer control organisations. Internal radiotherapy and long-term consequences of radiotherapy were poorly covered by most sources. Compared to general radiotherapy information resources, tumour-specific resources were found to be superior at providing information about cancer diagnosis, prognosis, daily treatment and side effects to general radiotherapy information resources.

Conclusion: Radiotherapy information from sources provides different information to patients. It is important that together, they comprehensively address patient information needs. Future research is needed to determine whether radiotherapy information is suitable for lower literacy populations.

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