GSOR03 Presentation Time: 5:10 PM

Purpose

Brachytherapy using HDR plays a crucial role in the treatment of gynecological cancer undergoing radiation therapy. This pilot study examines the use of Virtual Reality (VR) distraction for subjects undergoing HDR brachytherapy and its effects on their satisfaction, procedural anxiety, pain, and the need for analgesics or anxiolytics. We hypothesize that incorporating VR distraction into the brachytherapy treatment workflow will improve subjects’ satisfaction, reduce procedural anxiety and pain, and reduce the need for analgesics or anxiolytics.

Methods and Materials

From September 2022 to November 2023, 7 patients have been enrolled so far, each requiring a minimum of 4 sessions of HDR brachytherapy. Each patient underwent 2 sessions with VR and 2 sessions without. Each patient was also asked to fill out a questionnaire before and after each HDR brachytherapy session, which included pain score, and anxiety score among other details. Data including AE events were recorded post-treatment for all sessions.

Results

With an accrual goal of 20 patients, 7 women, ages 29 to 81, participated in the study. Six of the subjects were white and 1 subject was black or African American. All 7 subjects attempted to use virtual reality during brachytherapy at least once, contributing to a total of 12 sessions with virtual reality, which were compared to 13 complete sessions without virtual reality. The preliminary results show the following. Subjects reported lower average pre-procedural pain prior to VR sessions. 2. Subjects reported lower average procedural pain during VR sessions. 3. Subjects reported about the same pre-procedural anxiety with or without virtual reality 4. Subjects reported a high satisfaction score and would like to use the VR again.

Conclusions

These preliminary results suggest a potential reduction in procedural pain with the inclusion of VR sessions during HDR brachytherapy. However, there was no observed change in the need for opioid or anxiety medications among these initially enrolled patients. All subjects reported high satisfaction scores and would like to use VR again. While many subjects reported it was their first time engaging with VR, in the future, we plan to incorporate a longer demo session and modify the questionnaire to improve the subject's familiarity with the technology.