ID-Developed Patient Education Materials Reach Medical Professionals in 140 Countries
May 20, 2025
ID students prototyping the CEBRE guides
The CEBRE (Communicating the External Beam Radiotherapy Experience) education guides for cancer patients, developed through a collaboration between ID Associate Professor of Visual Communication Tomoko Ichikawa, ID students, and radiation oncologist Dr. Daniel Golden, have been integrated into the RadOnc Toolbox app.
Developed by the Radiation Oncology Institute (ROI), the RadOnc Toolbox is currently used by 4,000 medical professionals across 140 countries, with over 1,300 active users each month. This integration provides radiation oncologists worldwide with convenient access to these patient education materials.
Open-access guides demystify cancer treatment
Demystifying Radiation Therapy for Patients
The CEBRE guides use graphic narratives and sixth-grade reading level content to help demystify radiation therapy for cancer patients. Launched in 2017, the project now includes ten guides: seven that are included the RadOnc app—a general guide suitable for all disease sites, along with site-specific versions for Lung, Breast, Prostate, Head and Neck, Central Nervous System, and GI tumors—and three additional guides for Communicating the Gynecological Brachytherapy Experience, or CoGBE.
These guides aim to reduce patient anxiety by providing clear, accessible information about the radiation therapy process. Their simplified communication of complex topics was previously recognized with a ClearMark award for excellence in plain language communication.
The recent addition of Spanish translations on both the website and app has significantly expanded their global reach.
A map from the CEBRE site that shows global downloads of the guides.
The guides are supported by the Radiation Oncology Institute (ROI), the charitable arm of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO)—an organization spanning 100 countries with over 10,000 members including physicians, nurses, biologists, physicists, radiation therapists, and dosimetrists.
All CEBRE guides are licensed under Creative Commons, making them open access so anyone can download, print, and use the materials without restriction.
Learn more and download the guides by request at the CEBRE website.