Friends of the Cancer Centre’s Research and Development Radiographer presents at World Leading Conference

Karen Crowther will be taking the opportunity to highlight the fantastic work she has done as Friends of the Cancer Centre’s Research & Development radiographer to support radiotherapy patients in NI. Karen plays a key role in the adoption of new, innovative radiotherapy techniques, and helps to ensure that these are safely implemented by the department, which ensures that patients at the NI Cancer Centre are receiving the best possible care.

Karen will be sharing her knowledge at the Annual Congress of the European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO) which will take place from 26th to 30th April 2019. This prestigious event, the largest multi-disciplinary meeting of its kind in Europe, brings together around 7300 members to share knowledge, practice and advancements in the fields of radiotherapy and oncology. The theme of ESTRO 38 is “Targeting optimal care, together” and Karen will be presenting on two innovative methods that the team at the Northern Ireland Cancer Centre are using to provide enhanced care for their patients.

As part of an intense programme of presentations and opportunities to network, Karen will be presenting on the ‘Introduction of deep inspiration breath-hold for patients receiving left-sided breast cancer treatment in Belfast.’ This technique aims to remove the heart from the radiotherapy treatment field, by training patients to hold their breath during treatment.

As well as her presentation, Karen will also be displaying a poster at the conference on a topic she previously presented on at the Society of Radiographers Annual Radiotherapy Conference in January 2019. The poster relates to the use of patient questionnaires for reporting treatment related symptoms for prostate cancer patients.

This project allowed patients to voice how they felt both during and after treatment, rather than medical practitioners making a judgement on a patients’ wellbeing. This is of significant value to medical practitioners, as knowing exactly the impact that the treatment was having on a particular prostate cancer patient allowed them to adapt the treatment therapies based on each individuals’ needs.

Thanks to your support, the charity has been able to fund the Research & Development Radiographer post for over 15 years. This is your support in action.