GUROPA survey: genito-urinary radiation oncology prescription attitudes

To investigate the role of Radiation Oncology in the management of genito-urinary (GU) cancer excluding prostate and penile cancer.

The questionnaire was focused on the evaluation of the degree of involvement of radiation oncologists in the work-up of bladder, renal cell carcinoma and testicular cancer (TC).

Eighty-eight radiation oncologists completed the survey. The majority (85.4%) of participating radiation oncologists were senior consultants (> 5 years of experience). Sixty-four (73.6%) carried out a multidisciplinary tumor board discussion of GU cases, while 23 (26.4%) did not. Seventy-five percent of responders reported that, every year, visited < 50 GU patients (pts), 18.1% visited 50-100 pts and 6.9% visited > 100 pts. Bladder cancer, curative radiotherapy (RT) as part of trimodality approach was claimed to be adopted in less than 10 cases per year. Regarding renal cell carcinoma (RCC) patients, primary tumor directed RT was adopted only in 8 cases (9.4%) in at least 10 pts per year. Palliative RT was more frequent in RCC (48.2%) in over than 10 pts per year. In case of TC, the prescription of RT was limited (< 10 patients per year) due to the low incidence of disease and recent shift to surveillance as a first option in stage I seminoma.

Our survey showed that radiation oncologists are rarely involved in the decision making strategy of GU cancer, despite many clinical trials support RT use. These patients probably deserve a more uniform approach based on updated, detailed and evidence-based recommendations.