A study looking at 2 different ways of having radiotherapy and their impact on the environment (IMPRINT)

Cancer type:

Breast cancer

Prostate cancer

Status:

Open

Phase:

Other

This study is asking people about their experiences of having radiotherapy for prostate or breast cancer. It is also asking them about their travel to hospital to find out about the impact of radiotherapy on the environment.

It is for people who had their radiotherapy treatment at the Christie Hospital in Manchester or Worcester Oncology Centre.

You can’t volunteer to join this study. The team will send you a letter inviting you to take part if they think you might be suitable.

The study team are also interviewing healthcare professionals. And people whose jobs involve important decisions about radiotherapy or cancer care.

More about this trial

Radiotherapy to treat breast cancer or prostate cancer is a usual treatment.
Radiotherapy is measured in units called Gray (Gy) Open a glossary item . We know from research that giving more Gy per fraction , but fewer fractions works as well as standard radiotherapy. This shorter course of radiotherapy is called hypofractionated radiotherapy. The dose per fraction is higher, but the total dose is lower. This means fewer trips to hospital to have radiotherapy.

We also know that radiotherapy can have a negative impact on the environment. This is because you travel to hospital for a lot of appointments. For standard radiotherapy, this is about 15 to 20 visits. For hypofractionated radiotherapy, this is about 5 visits.

Researchers think that if more people have a shorter course of radiotherapy, it may be better for the environment. Researchers need to gather more evidence about having the shorter course. This is before it can become part of routine practice.

In this study, researchers are inviting people to take part in a questionnaire about their travel to and from their radiotherapy appointments. Some may be followed up with an interview.

The main aims of the study are to find out:

if having hypofractionated radiotherapy instead of standard radiotherapy for breast cancer and prostate cancer could help the environment
how acceptable people think it is to have a shorter course of radiotherapy as part of routine care
how well people remember how they travelled to their radiotherapy appointments
what health care professionals in cancer care and key decision makers think about the shorter course of radiotherapy and introducing it into the NHS

Who can enter

The following bullet points are a summary of the entry conditions for this study. Talk to your doctor or the study team if you are unsure about any of these. They will be able to advise you.

Who can take part

For patients
You may be able to take part if one of the following apply. You:

had radiotherapy as 40Gy in 15 treatments or 26Gy in 5 treatments for breast cancer. Your doctor will know this.
had radiotherapy as 74Gy in 37 treatments, 60Gy in 20 treatments or 36.25Gy in 5 treatments for prostate cancer. Your doctor will know this.

As well as the above, all of the following must apply. You:

have already taken part in the questionnaire part of this study about your radiotherapy treatment. And you sent the completed questionnaires back to the study team.
agreed to be contacted by the study team again

For healthcare professionals and key decision makers
You may be able to join this study if any of the following apply. You:

are involved in key advisory bodies who develop clinical guidelines
make key decisions in the NHS
are a doctor involved with radiotherapy
make key decisions about cancer care at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust or certain nearby hospitals or cancer alliances

You can’t take part if you aren’t involved in radiotherapy or cancer treatment.

Trial design

The team would like to interview 20 patients and 24 healthcare professionals and key decision makers.

Interviews with people with prostate or breast cancer
As part of this study, the team will send questionnaires to 200 people about their experiences of radiotherapy. The team then plan to interview some people who have returned their completed questionnaires.

You’ll get a letter from the study team inviting you for an interview if they think you are suitable. You can say no if you don’t want to take part.

If you agree to take part, the interviews take place on the phone, online with video conferencing or face to face. If you have a face to face interview this is done with a researcher on University of Manchester campus, or at The Christie Hospital in Manchester if you prefer.

The researcher will arrange the interview at a time that is convenient for you. They will ask to audio record the interview. If you don’t want it to be recorded the researcher will ask if they can take written notes. All the information collected from the interview will be kept confidential and anonymous. The interview may last up to an hour. There are no right or wrong answers, the team are interested in what you have to say and what you think.

The team will ask you about your travel to and from your radiotherapy appointments and your thoughts on shorter courses of radiotherapy.

Interviews with key decision makers
The team are also interviewing people who make key decisions about radiotherapy in the NHS. The team will ask them about the main considerations to deliver hypofractionated radiotherapy treatment more widely. They will also ask how implementing a shorter course of radiotherapy treatment could influence practice.

The team hope this information will help to better understand the advantages and drawbacks of introducing hypofractionated radiotherapy into the NHS and the impact this has on the environment.

They will do the interviews online and as described above. It takes about an hour.

Interviews with healthcare professionals
The team are also interviewing doctors who work in cancer care, radiotherapy or both.

They want to find out about the impact of using hypofractionated radiotherapy rather than standard radiotherapy. They are interested to see how this might affect the clinics, staff and patients.

An example of a question is to ask them to estimate the number of patients that will be treated over a month using hypofractionated rather than standard radiotherapy.

The interview may take up to 45 minutes.