Improving comfort for cancer patients receiving radiotherapy

Goldsworthy, Simon

Abstract

Radiotherapy involves ionising radiation targeted at malignant tissue over a course of 3 to 35 days; it is an effective treatment for cancer resulting in 40% of patients being cured. Patients are positioned to restrict motion and therapeutic radiographers aim to replicate this position during treatment ensuring reproducibility, accuracy and minimising the acute and long-term side effects of radiotherapy treatment. Positioning and immobilisation for radiotherapy can be uncomfortable for patients, especially with extended treatment times, and may be a crucial factor influencing accurate positioning. There was a need to develop comfort interventions to ensure that cancer patients can comply with potentially lifesaving radiotherapy.
The PhD programme started with a systematic literature review (SLR) which identified comfort interventions which may be suitable for radiotherapy. The SLR identified some clinically significant candidate comfort intervention categories in healthcare that may be adapted to improve patient comfort during radiotherapy. Many comfort interventions were also statistically significant with large effect sizes worthy of further investigation.
The experience of patient comfort is relatively unexplored in radiotherapy being limited to a few studies. Therefore, the next study was conducted to explore the phenomenon of comfort from the perspective of patients and therapeutic radiographers. Interviews with 25 patients’ and 25 therapeutic radiographers explored patient comfort during radiotherapy and how it could be best managed, analysed using thematic analysis. Through commonality assessment of themes, four common comfort experience themes and three common comfort solution themes were established.
The comfort categories of the SLR and the comfort solutions arising from interviews were synthesised to form a draft comfort intervention component list. Finally, an online nominal group technique consensus study with 7 patients and 3 therapeutic radiographers prioritised comfort intervention components and discussed feasibility in radiotherapy. Overall, eleven comfort intervention components were recommended. Directed content analysis of narratives justified the practical rationale for the intervention recommendation. The next step is (beyond the PhD) will be to develop the comfort intervention package and investigate effectiveness in radiotherapy.

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Apr 5, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 13, 2025
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/11867641
• Award Date: Mar 13, 2025