Radiation Therapy in Focus

One of ASTRO’s strategic plan goals is to showcase the patient benefits of radiation therapy. We offer patients several ways to learn what radiation therapy is and how it can treat or cure their cancer. Patient education offerings include the RTAnswers website which features treatment videos and downloadable brochures. All these materials are produced with oversight from the Communications Committee.

The ASTRO Board is committed to ensuring that patients have the most current information about radiation therapy, and thus, requested the development of a public awareness initiative. To first gauge the public’s understanding, we fielded survey questions to assess people’s knowledge about radiation therapy. The findings included that people felt less informed about radiation therapy than other cancer treatment modalities and more than a third said they were unaware that radiation therapy can cure certain types of cancer.

Today’s media landscape and the myriad ways people access information has evolved with most people researching health information online. Another challenge is that not all information found online is credible or factual. These realities highlighted the need for clear, accessible education about radiation therapy, and shaped the initiative’s design to focus on educating people with easy-to-digest facts about radiation therapy while dispelling common and outdated misconceptions.

The new initiative, Radiation Therapy in Focus, is a multi-pronged online effort to inform people who receive a diagnosis of cancer about what radiation therapy is, who radiation oncologists are and how they help people with cancer better understand the treatment. It also answers an array of common questions and concerns people have about radiation therapy.

The Radiation Therapy in Focus materials added to the RTAnswers website demystify radiation therapy and emphasize its value as an essential, effective and often life-saving option for people with cancer.

Radiation Therapy in Focus has new materials for patients including:

• Short video interviews with ASTRO member radiation oncologists who discuss the science behind radiation therapy, what patients can expect from the treatment and address a top concern for people — possible side effects 

• Interviews with patients who share their radiation therapy treatment experiences 

• Answers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about radiation therapy that are downloadable so patients can bring them to their appointments 

• Fact vs. fiction quiz about radiation therapy which works to dispel common myths

The campaign is being promoted via advertisements on Google, on social media channels, including Instagram and Facebook, and ASTRO’s and RTAnswers’ social media channels. We encourage you to bookmark the RTAnswers.org website as you discuss treatments with your patients and share the website with them so they can learn from the information.

Since the campaign launched in November, traffic to the RTAnswers website tripled. Hundreds of people downloaded the FAQs document and spent time exploring the content. The vision is to expand the campaign to produce more videos, including radiation oncologist interviews done in Spanish, increased engagement with cancer patient advocacy groups, media outreach and more.