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- Posted November 14, 2025
Extra Support Helps Cancer Patients Make It To Radiation Treatment Sessions
Radiation therapy is a highly effective way to treat cancers, but only if patients make it to their regular treatment sessions.
Unfortunately, as many as 1 out of 5 U.S. cancer patients miss two or more of their recommended radiation appointments, increasing their risk of dying from cancer or suffering a repeat bout of disease.
But providing patients with support — helping them with transportation, managing their other illnesses and talking through their discomfort — can reduce missed radiation therapy sessions by up to 40%, according to a study published Nov. 11 in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.
“With advances in cancer care, we now have treatments that can drastically improve survival rates. Patients only receive those benefits if they complete their recommended care,” senior researcher Dr. Laurie Kirstein said in a news release. She’s a breast surgical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City
Missed radiation therapy appointments are “an area of concern where we have the power to turn the tide and better support hospitals and patients,” Kirstein said.
The study focused on Breaking Barriers, a two-year national quality improvement program that helped hospitals and cancer centers identify and address the causes behind missed radiation sessions.
Over two years, 194 institutions participated in the program, looking at ways to resolve barriers to making radiation appointments for seven cancers: breast, prostate, gynecologic, gastrointestinal, rectal, lung and head and neck.
During the two-year study, more than 90,000 people were scheduled for radiation therapy. Patients who missed three or more radiation appointments were logged, and researchers asked what made them skip those sessions.
Results identified four main barriers to making it to radiation therapy: Transportation issues (62%); illness unrelated to cancer treatment (37%); conflicting appointments (17%); and not wanting to continue with treatment (9%).
In response, hospitals implemented solutions like:
Enhanced electronic health records to automate appointment reminders
Improved means of helping patients find affordable, reliable transportation
Hiring patient navigators to follow up with patients
Overall, 71% of participating hospitals saw a decrease in their no-show rates by tackling barriers with such solutions, researchers said.
Missed radiation appointments declined by nearly 40% — from around 8% down to 5%. This translated into more than 1,600 additional patients who completed their cancer care, researchers said.
Regionally, hospitals in the South and Midwest saw the greatest reduction in missed appointments, with the Northeast having less improvement, the study found.
“This research highlights the distinct challenges cancer patients face throughout their treatment journey — and showed us how a large-scale quality improvement project can address those challenges,” Kirstein said. “As cancer care providers, we need to be aware of the obstacles that patients face when seeking care and develop feasible, innovative ways to support both hospitals and patients.”
More information
The National Cancer Institute has more on radiation therapy for cancer.
SOURCE: American College of Surgeons, news release, Nov. 11, 2025
