health literacy in understanding radiation therapy information in patients undergoing definitive radiation therapy

Conditions: Anatomic Stage I Breast Cancer AJCC v8; Anatomic Stage IA Breast Cancer AJCC v8; Anatomic Stage IB Breast Cancer AJCC v8; Anatomic Stage II Breast Cancer AJCC v8; Anatomic Stage IIA Breast Cancer AJCC v8; Anatomic Stage IIB Breast Cancer AJCC v8; Anatomic Stage III Breast Cancer AJCC v8; Anatomic Stage IIIA Breast Cancer AJCC v8; Anatomic Stage IIIB Breast Cancer AJCC v8; Anatomic Stage IIIC Breast Cancer AJCC v8; Prognostic Stage I Breast Cancer AJCC v8; Prognostic Stage IA Breast Cancer AJCC v8; Prognostic Stage IB Breast Cancer AJCC v8; Prognostic Stage II Breast Cancer AJCC v8; Prognostic Stage IIA Breast Cancer AJCC v8; Prognostic Stage IIB Breast Cancer AJCC v8; Prognostic Stage III Breast Cancer AJCC v8; Prognostic Stage IIIA Breast Cancer AJCC v8; Prognostic Stage IIIB Breast Cancer AJCC v8; Prognostic Stage IIIC Breast Cancer AJCC v8; Stage I Prostate Cancer AJCC v8; Stage II Prostate Cancer AJCC v8; Stage IIA Prostate Cancer AJCC v8; Stage IIB Prostate Cancer AJCC v8; Stage IIC Prostate Cancer AJCC v8; Stage III Prostate Cancer AJCC v8; Stage IIIA Prostate Cancer AJCC v8; Stage IIIB Prostate Cancer AJCC v8; Stage IIIC Prostate Cancer AJCC v8; Stage IVA Prostate Cancer AJCC v8

Summary: this study assesses the health literacy and understanding of radiation therapy information during consultation in patients with prostate or breast cancer undergoing definitive radiation therapy. health literacy is defined as "the capacity to obtain, process, and understand health information and services to enable sound health decisions." information gained from this study, may help researchers develop appropriate modalities to enhance comprehension of radiation therapy, and therefore allow for improved patient decision making with medical treatment.

primary objective: i. to assess patient health literacy and understanding of critical radiation information during consultation in spanish and english speaking patient in the department of radiation oncology at los angeles county (lac) + university of southern california (usc) utilizing a patient survey administered after consultation. secondary objective: i. correlate findings of radiation comprehension and satisfaction with validated measures of health literacy, acculturation, and socioeconomic status of patients. tertiary objective: i. to assess patient satisfaction of interpreter service in spanish-speaking patients among breast and prostate cancer patients receiving definitive radiation. outline: patients complete a survey over 5-10 minutes about their understanding of radiation therapy.

Eligibility criteria:
inclusion criteria: * all participants in this study will have ct1-4n0-1m0 prostate cancer or ct1-4n1-3m0 breast cancer, as clinically staged by the attending radiation oncologist following the american joint committee on cancer (ajcc) 8th edition * non-metastatic breast or prostate cancer * radiation consultation for definitive treatment * english or spanish-speaking exclusion criteria: * any person with major cognitive deficit or psychiatric impairment * any person, who with assistance by a family member or caregiver, is unable to complete a written survey