ESTRO 2020 Abstract Book

S1080 ESTRO 2020

were able to clarify clinical and administrative aspects of their job. In November 2016 Mary Coffey, Adjunct Associate Professor, Discipline of Radiation Therapy-Trinity College and Elena Fidarova, Radiation Oncologist of the Applied Radiation Biology and Radiotherapy Section, IAEA visited Moscow with the IAEA expert mission to assess the programme of the national training course for RTTs. They also took part in the work of the RTTs section of the Congress of the Russian Society of Radiographers and Radiologists held in Moscow, RF, 7 – 9 November, 2016. Since 2018 in terms of Russian scientific and educational Congress with international participation "Oncoradiology, radiation diagnosis and therapy» a specialized RTTs section is held. Conclusion Nowadays the modern radiotherapy is performed with the sophisticated equipment that requires the highly qualified professionals. In the Russian Federation the responsibilities of Radiation Therapy Technologists are executed by nurses who receive on-the-job training. We would like to share our experience of the RTTs education and training programme in Russia. PO-1941 Current perspectives of RTTs in radiation oncology research: a national survey in Italy D. Piro 1 , L. Boldrini 1 , P. Cornacchione 1 , D. Pasini 1 , M. Balducci 1 , M.A. Gambacorta 1 , V. Valentini 1 1 Fondazione Policlinico Universitario "A. Gemelli" IRCCS, Diagnostica per Immagini- Radioterapia Oncologica ed Ematologia, Roma, Italy Purpose or Objective This survey is describes the current role and perspectives of RTTs within Radiation Oncology scientific research teams in Italy, in the frame of multi-professional collaboration for research projects setup and ongoing protocols management. Primary aim was to assess the degree of involvement of our national RTT community in research and describe how it addresses the multiple opportunities in working together with other professional figures and successfully integrating their perspective and skills in clinical research. Material and Methods A specific questionnaire of ten questions was ad hoc generated on an online survey platform. The questions were divided in three different main topics: demographic (age, sex, kind of institution); opinions (about the role, the potential benefits and the possible obstacles of RTT participation to research projects), scientific interest (number of research projects involvement, number of papers read, conference attended) about the role of RTTs within scientific research. Each question provided for a single preference among from two to eight options. The questionnaire was sent on national basis to all the Italian RTTs, using the Italian Association of RTTs mailing list. The survey started on the 1st of October 2018 and ended on the 31 st of January 2019. Results The survey questionnaire was sent to 509 RTTs and 133 responses were received at its expire date (26.12%). 97.73% of the respondents stated that RTTs could represent a figure that can be successfully integrated into the multi-professional research team, with a clear predominance of the "Data collection" task (52.71%) and “Hypothesis generation” (17.83%), aiming to develop personal competences and knowledge (67.42%). Unfortunately, 59.85% of the respondents are not member of any scientific society and 38.64% does not feel supported by the other research team members. Demographic and scientific interest questions and relative responses are described in image 1, while the ones

describing the research role of RTTs are reported in image 2.

Figure 1.

Figure 2.

Conclusion Not surprisingly, most of the received responses belong to young professionals: this probably implies that the generations who are now entering the world of research have different informatics and linguistic skills than their older colleagues, as a result of both different educational paths and different propensity. Even if not unanimously, this study also suggests that Italian RTTs, if properly supported, are willing to be integrated into multidisciplinary research projects, favoring data collection and hypothesis generation operations as main tasks. A more active involvement in professional scientific societies is encouraged, as this may facilitate the integration of RTTs in research teams. PO-1942 Palliative Radiotherapy Peer Review; A Multi- disciplinary retrospective audit. J. Mitchell 1 , S. Dall 2 , D. Finn 2 , A. Sundaramurthy 3 , F. Little 3 , W. Urquhart 2 , T. Evans 3 , S. Campbell 3 , C. Bedi 3 1 Edinburgh Cancer Centre, Edinburgh Cancer Centre, edinburgh, United Kingdom ; 2 Edinburgh Cancer Centre, Radiotherapy, Edinburgh, United Kingdom ; 3 Edinburgh