The Communicating the External Beam Radiotherapy Experience (CEBRE) discussion guides are designed to make a complex cancer treatment process more understandable, accessible and patient‑centered. All guides in the series use simple illustrations and text to help patients and caregivers understand what to expect before, during and after radiation therapy.
Developed through a collaboration between radiation oncologist Daniel Golden, MD, MHPE, and design expert Tomoko Ichikawa, MS, the CEBRE guides address a well‑documented communication challenge: many patients retain less than half of the information shared during consultations, and existing resources are often written at a reading level that exceeds recommendations for patient education materials.
With support from The ASTRO Foundation, then known as ROI, Dr. Golden and his team developed six site‑specific CEBRE guides covering breast, lung, prostate, head and neck, central nervous system, and gastrointestinal cancers to allow providers to personalize discussions to patients’ specific treatment experiences.
Dr. Golden’s team also created CEBRE en Español to provide culturally and linguistically appropriate radiotherapy education materials to improve communication with Spanish‑speaking patients and caregivers. The CEBRE en Español guides were rigorously adapted and evaluated for readability, understandability and actionability, reinforcing their role as credible patient‑centered tools.
All CEBRE guides are available free of charge and designed for easy customization and in‑clinic use, reducing barriers to adoption across practice settings. The six guides supported in part by the Foundation can be downloaded below in both English and Spanish.
