Hypofractionated radiation therapy for women with early stage breast cancer

Hypofractionated radiation therapy for women with early‑stage breast cancer has been increasingly used in NSW. However, variation in its use in NSW has been observed.

The Cancer Institute NSW began the project planning and initiation of the Leading Better Value Care initiative in 2018.

The initiative is now in its sustainability phase. Key lessons learned include the importance of regular reporting to key stakeholders, as well as understanding the barriers and enablers to the use of hypofractionated radiation therapy in designing and implementing the initiative.

Key milestones

• Collaborating with key stakeholders in early 2019 to define the patient cohort, map the typical patient journey and discuss the potential outcome measures for incorporation into the program logic.
• Partnering with local health districts to collect baseline data and discuss local use of hypofractionation, which involved 25 in‑person and virtual interviews with districts about the barriers and enablers to the use of hypofractionation.
• Using insights from districts to inform the development of a toolkit to support facilities in assessing and addressing local variation in the utilisation of hypofractionated radiotherapy. The toolkit has been provided to districts to support use of hypofractionated radiation therapy.
• Establishing regular biannual reporting to districts on local uptake of hypofractionated radiation therapy for women with early‑stage breast cancer.
• Completion of a discrete choice experiment and economic appraisal, the results of which will be shared with stakeholders. 

More information 

Visit the Cancer Institute NSW website