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. 2011 Aug;19(8):1227-38.
doi: 10.1007/s00520-010-0942-6. Epub 2010 Jul 1.

Enhancing decision making about participation in cancer clinical trials: development of a question prompt list

Richard F Brown  1 , Elyse Shuk, Natasha Leighl, Phyllis Butow, Jamie Ostroff, Shawna Edgerson, Martin Tattersall
Affiliations

Enhancing decision making about participation in cancer clinical trials: development of a question prompt list

Richard F Brown et al. Support Care Cancer. 2011 Aug.

Abstract

Purpose: Slow accrual to cancer clinical trials impedes the progress of effective new cancer treatments. Poor physician-patient communication has been identified as a key contributor to low trial accrual. Question prompt lists (QPLs) have demonstrated a significant promise in facilitating communication in general, surgical, and palliative oncology settings. These simple patient interventions have not been tested in the oncology clinical trial setting. We aimed to develop a targeted QPL for clinical trials (QPL-CT).

Method: Lung, breast, and prostate cancer patients who either had (trial experienced) or had not (trial naive) participated in a clinical trial were invited to join focus groups to help develop and explore the acceptability of a QPL-CT. Focus groups were audio-recorded and transcribed. A research team, including a qualitative data expert, analyzed these data to explore patients' decision-making processes and views about the utility of the QPL-CT prompt to aid in trial decision making.

Results: Decision making was influenced by the outcome of patients' comparative assessment of perceived risks versus benefits of a trial, and the level of trust patients had in their doctors' recommendation about the trial. Severity of a patient's disease influenced trial decision making only for trial-naive patients.

Conclusion: Although patients were likely to prefer a paternalistic decision-making style, they expressed valuation of the QPL as an aid to decision making. QPL-CT utility extended beyond the actual consultation to include roles both before and after the clinical trial discussion.

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Figures

None
“I went into the consultation room and forgot every question I had.”
Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Sampling schema and flowchart of recruitment for question prompt list focus groups
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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