Shared Decision Making on Immunotherapy in Oncology (PEF-Immun)

University Hospital Heidelberg

Status

Completed

Conditions

Patient Decision Aid

Treatment As Usual

Treatments

Behavioral: Patient Decision Aid

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

NCT04240717

01VSF18047

Details and patient eligibility

About

Patients with advanced melanoma are confronted with a serious treatment decision. The current guideline recommends considering the option of immunotherapy with checkpoint inhibitors. The substances approved for this purpose differ greatly in their efficacy and the risk for adverse events. Besides, in about half of the patients with advanced melanoma a BRAF V600 Mutation is found. In these patients, in addition to immunotherapy, treatment with BRAF/MEK inhibitors must be considered.

Research on shared decision making suggests that patients achieve greater satisfaction with the decision if they are actively being involved in the decision-making process. To enable them to do so, an interactive, web-based patient decision aid (PtDA) informing about the treatment options for advanced melanoma will be developed and evaluated in a bicentric, prospective randomized controlled clinical trial.

The use of PtDA is expected to lead to a higher level of information about the benefits and risks of the various treatment options (primary hypothesis).

Full description

Immunotherapies are regarded as a new, promising treatment option for patients with advanced melanoma. However, immunotherapies can cause massive up to life-threatening side effects. The risks and benefits vary considerably between the possible therapy options. Besides, in about half of the patients with advanced melanoma a BRAF V600 Mutation is found. In these patients, in addition to immunotherapy, treatment with BRAF/MEK inhibitors must be considered. This treatment option usually produces a rapid response. In most cases, however, melanomas develop resistance after about 12 months.

Therefore, patients with advanced melanoma and their treating physicians are confronted with a very complex and preference-sensitive decision situation. Support in the form of a Patient Decision Aid (PtDA) can be helpful to support this complex decision-making process.

In the first project phase, an interactive web-based PtDA on treatment options for advanced melanomas will be developed. In the second phase of the project, the PtDA will be evaluated in a prospective randomized controlled clinical trial. Patients with a diagnosis of advanced melanoma will be recruited at the National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) Heidelberg and at the University Cancer Center (UCC) Dresden.

Patients of the intervention group will receive access to the interactive PtDA prior to a medical consultation. Patients of the control group will receive the medical consultation only (treatment-as-usual). Group differences between the intervention group and the control group are analysed at T1 (immediately after the medical consultation) and T2 (three months after the medical consultation). The following variables are measured: informedness of the decision (primary outcome), decision satisfaction, and involvement of the patients in the decision process.

Enrollment

126 patients

Sex

All

Ages

18+ years old

Volunteers

No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

diagnosis of metastatic melanoma (C43), stage 3 and 4
first-line therapy
tumor or metastases are not resectable
sufficient knowledge of the German language to use the PtDA
informed written consent to participate in the study

Exclusion criteria

limited legal capacity or impairments in this respect
cognitive or physical impairments, which severely complicate the use of the Patient Decision Aid (e.g. impaired vision)
severe psychiatric or mental illness