Impacts of Intrafraction Virtual Reality-Based Environment Modification on Procedural Anxiety, Heart Rate, and Overall Radiation Therapy Experience During External Beam Radiation Therapy.

Purpose: Procedural anxiety of cancer treatments may negatively impact patients and treatments. Mindfulness-promoting environment modification with virtual reality (VR) is increasingly used across medicine to minimize procedural anxiety. We aimed to assess the impacts of intrafraction mindfulness-promoting VR use during external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) on radiation therapy experience and physiological measures of distress.