Revealing Information Genuinely & Honestly Across Time: Pediatric Oncology Stakeholder Preferences and Recommendations for Prognostic Communication

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

Status: Completed

Conditions: Communication; Pediatric Cancer

Study type: Observational

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05116566

NCI-2021-12350 (Registry Identifier)

RIGHTime

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study is being conducted to better understand the preferences and recommendations of patients and parents regarding optimal ways to share prognostic communication. Specifically, to learn what stakeholders (i.e., patients, parents, and doctors) believe to be the "right" content, timing, and delivery of this important information.

Specific Aim 1

• To define key stakeholder preferences and recommendations for timing, content, and delivery of prognostic communication across the advancing illness course and bereavement.

Specific Aim 2

• To engage stakeholders in the design of a patient/parent centered RIGHTime framework and communication intervention to promote individualized, timely prognostic disclosure.

Full description

This study will have two phases.

Phase 1:

Investigators will define key stakeholder preferences and recommendations for timing, content, and delivery of prognostic communication across the advancing illness course and bereavement. Eligible parents and patients will participate in semi-structured interviews on prognostic communication preferences, stratified by cohort: poor-prognosis diagnosis, advancing disease, phase I/II trial enrollment, and bereavement; eligible oncologists will complete interviews on prognostic disclosure preferences. Participants will participate in a single interview that will last anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes.The interview will be audio-recorded and transcribed. Participant demographic and social determinants of health information will be collected.

Phase 2:

Investigators will partner with a smaller group of stakeholders (parents, patients, and oncologist) from phase 1 to develop a clinical communication guide to help improve communication between patients, families, and cancer doctors. The panel will meet across 4 sessions to develop a conceptual framework that explains the interconnecting variables influencing stakeholder preferences and to design a prognostic communication intervention (i.e., a RIGHTime communication guide) that encourages oncologists to provide individualized, timely prognostic disclosure.

Enrollment: 95 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 12+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Patients

• Aged 12-25 years
• Recent diagnosis (< 3 months) of a poor prognosis cancer with an estimated survival of 50% or less by the primary oncologist (cohort 1) OR recent history of disease relapse/progression within the past 3 months (cohort 2) OR active enrollment on a phase I/II trial (cohort 3).
• English-speaking

Parents

• Aged 18 years or older
• Parent (or legal caregiver) of a child with cancer of any age who meets the above criteria for cohorts 1-3 OR of a child who died from cancer 6-24 months from enrollment (cohort 4).
• English-speaking

Oncologists

• Pediatric oncologists who treat patients at SJCRH or who refer patients for treatment to SJCRH

Exclusion criteria

• Does not meet the inclusion criteria.

Trial design

95 participants in 3 patient groups

Patients

Description:

Three distinct sub-cohorts will be targeted for recruitment to represent perspectives across the advancing illness course: patients ≤3 months from a poor- prognosis diagnosis (cohort 1), patients ≤ 3 months from disease relapse or progression (cohort 2), and patients actively enrolled on a phase I/II trials (cohort 3).For cohorts 1-3, patient-parent dyads will be enrolled when eligible; however, an independent patient is eligible for enrollment if the parent consents for the patient's enrollment but declines his/her own enrollment.

Parents

Description:

Four distinct sub-cohorts of parents will be targeted for recruitment, including cohorts 1-3 and a fourth bereavement cohort. For cohorts 1-3, patient-parent dyads will be enrolled when eligible; however, an independent parent is eligible for enrollment if the patient declines enrollment, but the parent wishes to participate.

Oncologist

Description:

Pediatric oncologists who treat or refer patients for treatment at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (SJCRH) will be eligible to participate.