Personalized medicine in radiotherapy: practitioners’ perception

Abstract

This exploratory study was designed to investigate the representations of radiotherapists in relation to personalized medicine. On the basis of currently available radiotherapy predictive tests, we tried to understand how these tests could be used in routine radiotherapy practice and in what way this possible change of practices could affect the role of radiotherapists in treatment protocols. In the absence of any available data allowing the construction of a quantitative tool, qualitative data were recorded by individual interviews with radiotherapists. Based on textual data analysis, a second national quantitative phase was conducted using a selfadministered questionnaire. Crossover analysis of the two datasets highlighted the interest of radiotherapists in personalized medicine and the use of predictive tests, while indicating certain limitations and concerns in relation to ethical issues related to personalized medicine in oncology and the physician’s position.