Abstract Book

S1252

ESTRO 37

Results Between January and September 2017, 84 patients were invited to attend the seminar. 68% of patients chose to attend. 100% of patients completed a feedback questionnaire. 94% of patients felt that they were more prepared for their RT treatment after the seminar. Patients were happy to receive information in a group setting with only 5% stating they would have preferred individual appointments. Individual patient comments received included: ‘Nice to meet others in similar position’, ‘Great to meet others’ and ‘Other participants raised question's I would not have’. Other health care professionals who met the patients at a later stage commented that patients appeared better informed than those who had not attended a seminar. Conclusion The new patient education seminar had 100% patient satisfaction for those who attended based on questionnaires. Ongoing work includes collection of quantitative data to evaluate the potential reduction in anxiety levels. Jenkins, V., Fallowfield, L. and Saul, J. (2001). Information needs of patients with cancer: results from a large study in UK cancer centres. British Journal of Cancer, 84 (1), pp. 48 – 51. Mills, M. and Sullivan, K. (1999). The importance of information giving for patients newly diagnosed with cancer: a review of the literature. Journal of Clinical Nursing,8(6), pp. 6 31–642. EP-2393 The influence of raising patient awareness of physical activity during radiation treatment H. Webster 1 , R. Carmi 1 , R. Bar-Deroma 1 , G. Bar-Sela 1 1 Rambam Health Care Campus - Faculty of Medicine, Oncology, Haifa, Israel Purpose or Objective Many researches have shown the connection between physical activity and cancer disease, but still, this has not been sufficiently highlighted, emphasized or applied in the oncology departments. Our project entitled "the importance of movement during the disease" was started in the radiotherapy unit to promote information on the different physical activities relevant to the different stages of the disease. The aim of this work was to test whether raising the patient awareness will influence performing physical activities during and/or after Three daily (6 hrs) courses were held at Rambam Hospital HCC during 2017. These were attended by 80 patients, 72 (90%) women with breast cancer and 8(10%), men with prostate cancer, that were at different stages of their radiation treatment. Average age was 54 years. In each day four different lectures dealing with different types of physical activities such as Pilates, Yoga, Thai Chi, Feldenkrais and dancing were given. The lectures were given by experts in their field. The attendees were requested to answer two questionnaires: at the beginning of the day and at its end. The topic of the first one was "How they think physical exercise influences the healing process" and the topic of the second one was "Did the course changed or influenced how you think about and/or influenced you to perform physical activity?". Questions were grade 1 (low influence) to 4 (high influence). Not all participants stayed to the end of the course as a radiation treatment. Material and Methods

Canada and Australia & NZ were 60, 63 and 60 respectively. The mean SMOG scores were 11.2, 10.7 and 11.0. (Figure 1). There was no significant difference in scores between the countries, F=0.8, p=0.47. Of the webpages analysed only one met the figure recommended by UK government bodies of a reading grade no higher than 9. UK results were also compared to findings from a similar readability undertaken in the UK in 2006. Readability scores from the current study were compared with H&N PILs from the previous study and it was revealed that although the score from the current study had a slightly higher readability score 11.2 (95% CI 10.8-11.6) compared to the 2006 score of 10.7 (95% CI 10.3-11.1), the score had not changed significantly, t=1.9, p=0.08. Conclusion The majority of PIL’s assessed across all regions were very similar and were above the recommended reading levels recommended in the countries. This finding of a higher than recommended reading grade is in keeping with that of other healthcare studies on readability and would indicate that many of the target audience might not be able to read and understand the information being presented. Despite the advice on reading grade levels for PILs there has been no significant improvement in reading grade scores over the past 10 years. EP-2392 A novel radiotherapy education seminar for patients with head and neck cancer. T. McCloskey 1 , M. Lei 1 , T. Guerrero-Urbano 1 , A. Michaelidou 1 , J. Ewang 1 , P. Treasure 1 , A. Francis 1 1 Guy's and St.Thomas' Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Cancer Centre- Radiotherapy, LONDON, United Kingdom Purpose or Objective Radical radiotherapy (RT) is an important treatment modality for patients with head and neck cancer (HNC) treated with curative intent. This treatment is associated with a high incidence of grade 3 toxicities. Careful multidisciplinary preparation of patients for treatment may be helpful in managing the patient’s treatment journey and experience. Jenkins et al (2001) reported that 87% of cancer patients (2231 patients) prefer to have as much information as possible. However, no one type of information format or style will suit all patients (Mills and Sullivan 1999). The provision of information in multiple formats and scenarios (verbal, written, individual consultation, group & audio- visual) may help to meet the needs of as many patients as possible. At our institution, the specialist treatment review radiographer (TRR) for HNC who is also a non-medical prescriber of supportive medications, established a new pre-treatment educational seminar for patients with HNC who had consented to treatment with RT. The aim was to empower patients to participate in self-care regimes from as early a stage as possible. Delivery from a TRR provided information to patients from both technical radiographer and symptom support perspectives. Material and Methods Patients with HNC who had consented to radical RT with their oncologist, were invited to attend the group seminar. The seminar consisted of a video of the making of a RT immobilisation shell and a power point presentation with pictures of a head and neck treatment plan, volumes and image guidance techniques. All attendees were asked to fill in a feedback questionnaire.