ACTION:Cancer patient involvement in medical decision making V 1.0
Research type
Research Study
Full title
ACTION: A phase III multicentre cluster randomised clinical trial to assess whether the 'Respecting Choices Program' improves quality of life and symptoms of patients with advanced cancer.
IRAS ID
152831
Contact name
Sheila Payne
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Lancaster University
Research summary
ACTION: A study to assess cancer patients’ involvement in medical decision making and its impact on their quality of life.
Patients with advanced cancer typically experience multiple symptoms and suffer from a reduced quality of life because of their condition. Advance care planning is a formalised process of communication between patients, relatives and professional caregivers. Advance care planning programmes aim to improve communication between patients and healthcare professionals, improve the quality of life and well being of patients and their relatives, reduce futile treatments and unnecessary hospital admissions, ensure care is consistent with patient goals and increase satisfaction with care as well as reducing costs. Research so far demonstrates that one of the most promising advance care planning programmes is the ‘Respecting Choices Program’.
The overall aim of the study is to assess whether the ‘Respecting Choices’ advance care planning programme improves the quality of life of patients with advanced lung and bowel(colorectal) cancer.
The study is a ‘cluster randomised control trial’ where the hospital is treated as a cluster of patients and randomised as a unit. Each hospital involved in the study will be chosen randomly at the start of the study to provide either the ‘Respecting Choices Program’ or ‘standard care’ to those taking part.
All patients involved in the study will be asked to complete questionnaires(paper copies) at the start of the study, at 10-12 weeks and at 18-20 weeks. Patients in the ‘Respecting Choices’ hospitals will also be offered the opportunity to take part in two advance care planning interviews with a trained ‘Respecting Choices’ facilitator.
This study is being carried out in 6 European Countries and is funded by the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme. Four hospitals in England will be taking part in the study and study recruitment is due to end in December 2016.REC name
North West - Liverpool Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/NW/1189
Date of REC Opinion
29 Aug 2014
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion