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Procedural stress and anxiety induced by radiation therapy provides many challenges for the radiation oncology clinical team. These stressors are further exacerbated in the paediatric setting, where comprehension is routinely poorer, impacting compliance to the many steps staggered throughout the radiation therapy treatment journey. In many circumstances, general anaesthesia is introduced to enable safe, precise, efficient treatment planning and delivery for paediatric patients overwhelmed and unable to comply with this requirement.

Virtual reality (VR) has been long used as a tool to immerse its users into a virtual environment to create life-like experiences. In recent years, VR has made an exciting transition into healthcare, utilised as both a tool for distraction and education in both the adult and paediatric settings across multiple specialities. The interactive nature of the VR platform has a particular lure to a paediatric audience.

Recent evidence has demonstrated the successful application of VR into the paediatric radiation oncology setting, with a focus on improving health literacy of the radiation therapy process, which in turn, aimed to reduce procedural related anxiety. Both provided significant benefits, with improved health literacy in paediatric patients and reduced anxiety in paediatric patients and parents alike. Additionally, further operational benefits were witnessed through improved efficiencies afforded by these health literacy and anxiety-related wins.

This presentation will further discuss this research and other emerging evidence in the VR in paediatric radiation therapy domain. Furthermore, new and exciting opportunities for the application of VR in radiation oncology will be discussed, with the audience engaged as to where they feel the future of VR in radiation therapy is headed as the never-ending possibilities of this technology are realised.