
Last year in the UK over 60,000 cancer patients enrolled on clinical trials aimed at improving cancer treatments and making them available to all.
This study looked at the issues people have after radiotherapy to the area between the hip bones (pelvis).
It was open for people to join between 2016 and 2017, and the team finalised the results in 2019.
Doctors often use radiotherapy to treat a number of different types of pelvic cancers. The pelvis is the area between the hip bones. Pelvic cancers include:
Doctors target radiotherapy at the area of cancer as precisely as they can. But sometimes it damages healthy cells that are close to the cancer as well. This can cause several different long term problems, known as pelvic radiation disease (PRD).
Symptoms of PRD can have a big effect on people’s quality of life. They include:
The researchers in this study looked at how pelvic radiation disease can affect people’s day to day life. They talked to people affected, and to some of their relatives.
The main aim of this study was to understand people’s experiences after radiotherapy to their pelvis.
The research team found that pelvic radiation disease has a big effect on people’s quality of life, and the level of support they get varies.
Results
The research team interviewed 9 patients who’d had radiotherapy for a cancer in their pelvic area. This included people with bowel cancer, prostate cancer and cervical cancer. They also talked to 5 relatives.
The people who took part in this study mentioned a variety of different issues they had been facing since they’d had pelvic radiotherapy. Some were mild and just a bit inconvenient. But some were very severe and meant that people didn’t want to leave the house.
One of the main issues people had was diarrhoea and not being able to control when they went to the toilet. This made people feel anxious, embarrassed or angry.
Some people felt that the healthcare professionals (HCP) didn’t pay enough attention to these issues, or ask about them enough. And that different HCPs had different levels of knowledge and awareness about the impact of pelvic radiation disease (PRD).
Sometimes people are too embarrassed to talk about these issues at their hospital appointments unless they are asked specific questions. So they just go on living with the problem.
The researchers suggest that HCPs need a way to assess this more reliably. And that perhaps it’s better to focus on how much the issue is impacting people’s day to day life, rather than just what it is or how often it happens. This will be different for different people.
The research team found there were 3 main themes:
Recommendations
The research team have looked at all the information they gathered and made some recommendations for people having issues with PRD. They suggest there needs to be:
Conclusion
The research team concluded that PRD is having a big effect on people’s quality of life. There seem to be variations in the levels of support, information and treatment available.
They feel that healthcare professionals should do more to find out about the issues people are having, and offer them more support and information.
Where this information comes from
We have based this summary on information from the research team. As far as we are aware, the information they sent us has not been reviewed independently () or published in a medical journal. The figures we quote above were provided by the research team. We have not analysed the data ourselves.
Please note: In order to join a trial you will need to discuss it with your doctor, unless otherwise specified.
Helen Ludlow
Cardiff University
Cardiff and Vale University Health Board
Freephone 0808 800 4040
Last year in the UK over 60,000 cancer patients enrolled on clinical trials aimed at improving cancer treatments and making them available to all.