The National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) has launched a new UK-wide initiative to study the impact of COVID-19 on radiotherapy services and patient outcomes. The initiative will be led by the NCRI’s Clinical and Translational Radiotherapy Research Working Group (CTRad).
The acute phase of the coronavirus pandemic has resulted in major changes to the patient pathway including:
- A substantial reduction in new cancer referrals.
- Deferring or cancelling screening programmes.
- The rapid publication of local and national guidance on changing radiotherapy schedules, with differing levels of evidence to support the recommendations.
- The omission, delay and/or instances of patient refusal of radiotherapy.
- A reduction in surgical capacity leading to an increase in the use of radiotherapy as first definitive treatment or as a bridge to surgery.
Further challenges are anticipated during the recovery phase of the pandemic.
The aim of the COVID RT initiative is to capture these changes and understand their impact on radiotherapy services and patient outcomes across the UK. The initiative will not only focus on patients with COVID-19 but all radiotherapy patients, and it will be complementary to the ongoing work of CTRad.
COVID RT was launched on 27 April 2020 at a webinar with 100 attendees from across 35 UK radiotherapy centres. A further webinar will be held next week due to the substantial interest in this initiative. It is supported by a number of UK professional groups including the Royal College of Radiologists and Society of Radiographers.
Register for the webinar here.
