Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 8, 2026
06:20
Irradiator Commissioning and Dosimetry for Assessment of LQ α and β Parameters, Radiation Dosing Schema, and in vivo Dose Deposition
Published on: March 11, 2021
Radiation Therapy Documentation Deficiencies in Cancer Survivorship Documents.
Marielle Fis Loperena1, Ramez Kouzy2, Rehema Thomas2
1The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Washington, DC.
Practical Radiation Oncology
|May 7, 2026
Summary
Publicly available survivorship care plans often lack crucial radiation therapy details. Improving these templates is essential for safe cancer patient follow-up care.
Area of Science:
- Oncology
- Radiation Oncology
- Health Services Research
Background:
- Survivorship care plans (SCPs) and treatment summaries (TS) aim to connect oncology and primary care.
- Effective follow-up requires detailed radiation therapy (RT) information, which may be missing in current templates.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the completeness of RT details in U.S. society-sponsored SCP/TS templates.
- To compare template content against recommendations from the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO).
Main Methods:
- Identified 18 SCP/TS templates from national medical organizations.
- Abstracted presence of specific RT variables (site, dose, technique, dates, toxicity, etc.) based on ASTRO guidelines.
- Summarized data descriptively, noting presence/absence of each variable.
Main Results:
- Most templates (94.4%) mentioned RT, and many (83.3%) listed a radiation oncology contact.
- Key technical RT details like total dose, dose per fraction, and fractionation were infrequently captured (33.3%, 22.2%, 27.8% respectively).
- No templates included RT sequencing or concurrent chemotherapy details; the Children's Oncology Group template was most comprehensive.
Conclusions:
- Current SCP/TS templates have significant gaps in essential radiation therapy information.
- Improvements are needed to ensure safe and coordinated follow-up care for cancer survivors treated with RT.
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