New Illustrated Discussion Guides Added to CEBRE Patient Education Series

Discussion guides tailored for central nervous system, digestive system, and head and neck radiotherapy have been added to the Communicating the External Beam Radiotherapy Experience (CEBRE) series. The complete CEBRE discussion guide series, including the three new guides, is available to download for free. The novel education materials combine simple illustrations and text to help physicians, nurses and other providers communicate with patients and caregivers about what to expect during radiotherapy.

Daniel Golden, MD, MHPE, of the Department of Radiation and Cellular Oncology at the University of Chicago leads the interdisciplinary team developing the CEBRE series, which is supported in part by the Radiation Oncology Institute (ROI). Dr. Golden conceptualized the innovative patient education materials and partnered with Professor Tomoko Ichikawa of the Illinois Institute of Technology Institute of Design to find the best design solution to execute his vision. Together they developed the first CEBRE guide, which provides a general overview of external beam radiotherapy and can be used for all disease sites. The team received a Personalized Radiation Therapy grant from ROI to create additional CEBRE guides tailored for six of the most common cancer sites treated with radiotherapy. Guides customized for breast, lung, and prostate radiotherapy were released in 2020, followed by the three new guides for central nervous system, digestive system, and head and neck radiotherapy that were released this fall.

Dr. Golden and his team have also developed CEBRE en Español, which includes Spanish translations of the original CEBRE guide as well as the breast, lung, and prostate guides. The other CEBRE guides will be translated soon. Studies to evaluate the impact of using the CEBRE guides during radiotherapy consultation on patient anxiety and comprehension are ongoing, and baseline results were presented by team member Jared Hara, MD, at this year’s ASTRO Annual Meeting. Learn more and download the CEBRE guides to use in your practice.