Radiation therapy is an important and effective tool in cancer treatment, but it can take a burdensome toll on one’s mental health, with up to 50 per cent of patients having some form of psychiatric distress, according to psychiatrist Dr Geoffrey Walcott.

“When you look at anxiety disorders in the population that specifically goes to radiation therapy, you see figures almost double that of the general population, 22 to 30 per cent is what most studies will show and it goes up even higher given the extent of the illness, the type of diagnosis of cancer etc,” Dr Walcott said.

“So you can rest assured that you’re going to have, in some instances, as high as 50 per cent of your patients having some form of psychiatric distress whether its panic disorder, phobia disorder, PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) or they go on to have major depressive disorders,” he added.

Dr Walcott made the remarks at the Scientific Research Council’s 31st National Science and Technology Conference on Thursday.

Against this background, he noted that patients require a high level of “care, compassion, and empathy”, and he recommended a collaborative approach between psychiatrists and radiation oncologists to provide what he said was the holistic treatment that is needed.

“It’s really a holistic approach that we have to take, and a very collaborative approach. And we often talk about that, but we recognise that in our different spheres and sub-disciplines, we tend to be very isolated and see intrusion as, you know, minor irritations,” Dr Walcott said during the panel discussion on ‘Navigating Emotional Challenges in Radiation Therapy’.

During the discussion, one patient gave a firsthand account of the emotional journey of cancer treatment, underlining the importance of psychological care and emotional support through the process.

The patient told the audience that her cancer diagnosis gave her a “big emotional wound” that she has yet to fully recover from two years later.

“A wound in my soul. It is cancer. Everything started with those words. The world collapses under your feet. The brain seems about to explode. The chest tightens and a crack in my spirit opens up,” the woman, who asked not to be identified, said.

After an emotional rollercoaster that saw her “hit rock bottom, the darkest of the places, the loneliest of the places”, she decided to seek professional help with the encouragement of a friend.

“Still with a deep wound in my spirit, in some way, touching down, shaped something in me. And I knew that I needed help, professional help. And through a friend, I was offered a therapist,” she said.

She said therapy and the compassionate approach of radiologist Dr Kern Pemberton helped her to heal emotionally.

“Dr Pemberton was able to answer all of my questions and calm all of my fears. At the end of the day, it’s not that I go through cancer treatment every weekend. He’s such a kind-hearted, compassionate, thoughtful, and caring doctor. He shares that knowledge in such a graceful manner that he made me feel at ease and immediately, I knew I was in the best of the hands,” she said, adding “So even though I still felt vulnerable, for the first time I felt the wound in my soul start to close up.”

In the meantime, medical physicist Damion Gilpin highlighted that it is not just the patients who face deep emotional challenges in the cancer treatment process, but the professionals as well. For instance, Gilpin outlined, when a patient passes.

“It hits the staff members sometimes in such a way that we necessarily don’t know how to react. You know, sometimes we wonder if we could have actually worked faster to prevent the death. How do we prevent this from happening? And it puts things in a perspective sometimes that, because we as physicists, we are only trained in the technical aspects, we do not know how to cope,” Gilpin said. “So there are sometimes where the oncologists themselves will have to, you know, sit down and counsel us.”