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Pilot Study Evaluating Cross-Disciplinary Educational Material to Improve Patients’ Knowledge of Palliative Radiation Therapy

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Abstract

Palliative radiation therapy (PRT) is underutilized, partially due to misconceptions about its risks, benefits, and indications. The objective of this pilot study was to determine if patients with metastatic cancer would gain knowledge from educational material describing PRT and perceive it as useful in their care. A one-page handout conveying information about the purpose, logistics, benefits, risks, and common indications for PRT was offered to patients undergoing treatment for incurable, metastatic solid tumors in one palliative care clinic and four medical oncology clinics. Participants read the handout, then completed a questionnaire assessing its perceived value. Seventy patients participated between June and December 2021. Sixty-five patients (93%) felt they learned from the handout (40% learned “lots”), and 69 (99%) felt the information was useful (53% “very useful”). Twenty-one patients (30%) were previously unaware that PRT can relieve symptoms, 55 (79%) were unaware that PRT can be delivered in five treatments or less, and 43 (61%) were unaware that PRT usually has few side effects. Sixteen patients (23%) felt they currently had symptoms not being treated well enough, and 34 (49%) felt they had symptoms that radiation might help with. Afterwards, most patients felt more comfortable bringing symptoms to a medical oncologist’s (n = 57, 78%) or radiation oncologist’s (n = 51, 70%) attention. Patient-directed educational material about PRT, provided outside of a radiation oncology department, was perceived by patients as improving their knowledge and adding value in their care, independent of prior exposure to a radiation oncologist.

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Research data are stored in an institutional repository and will be shared upon request to the corresponding author.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Piscataway, NJ, USA

    Faryal Rizvi

  2. Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ, USA

    Mark R. Korst & Meredith Young

  3. Department of Medicine, Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

    Muhammad Hamza Habib, Tina M. Mayer & Biren Saraiya

  4. Department of Medicine, Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, Newark, NJ, USA

    Joshua A. Kra & Ankit Shah

  5. School of Nursing, Rutgers, Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

    Olga F. Jarrín

  6. Department of Radiation Oncology, Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, 195 Little Albany Street, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

    Malcolm D. Mattes

Authors
  1. Faryal Rizvi
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  2. Mark R. Korst
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  4. Muhammad Hamza Habib
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  10. Malcolm D. Mattes
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Malcolm Mattes, Faryal Rizvi, and Meredith Young. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Mark Korst and Faryal Rizvi, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Malcolm D. Mattes.

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Competing Interests

MM receives grant funding from the Radiation Oncology Institute and Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation, and New Jersey Health Foundation. TM receives consulting payments from EMD Serono, IMPACT network, Blue Earth Diagnostics, and Aptitude Health. TM receives an advisory board payment from Exelexis.

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Rizvi, F., Korst, M.R., Young, M. et al. Pilot Study Evaluating Cross-Disciplinary Educational Material to Improve Patients’ Knowledge of Palliative Radiation Therapy. J Canc Educ 38, 1466–1470 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-023-02283-y

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