Clinical Research Directory

A Study of Several Radiation Doses for Patients With Progression on Immunotherapy/Checkpoint Inhibitors

Drugs called checkpoint inhibitors help the immune system fight cancer. When the effectiveness of these drugs wears off, it may be possible to renew their effectiveness by combining it with a special type of radiation therapy called stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT). SBRT is a commonly used type of radiation therapy that gives high dose radiation with high precision to tumors in 1-5 treatments. Radiation therapy, such as SBRT can also treat sites of metastases. The use of checkpoint inhibitors in combination with SBRT has been suggested to improve the immune response against cancer but has not been tested in a formal clinical trial. Up to three lesions can be treated with SBRT. This study only allows checkpoint inhibitors that are already approved by the Federal Drug Agency (FDA) for the treatment of your disease. All radiation therapy will be done on machines which are FDA approved.

The 4D PICTURE Project: Evaluating Metro Mapping As a Method to Support Shared Decision Making in Oncology

The goal of this observational study is to evaluate the impact of MetroMapping (a service design methodology) on Shared Decision Making in cancer care paths. The goal is to improve Shared Decision Making and make cancer care paths less overwhelming. The study will include adult participants (older than 18 years) with breast, prostate and melanoma cancers. The main question is How does the implementation of MetroMapping improve Shared Decision Making in cancer care paths. 500 patients, across the Netherlands, Spain, and Denmark, will be enrolled in a pre- and posttest phase. Including 100 breast cancer, 100 prostate cancer, and 50 melanoma patients per phase. To further understand patient experiences, the researchers will audio-record and transcribe the Shared Decision Making consultation of a subset of participants (10 per tumor type per country). A total of 120 audio-recordings across both study phases will be collected. In the post-test phase, a personal care path navigator will be created and the researchers will conduct interviews with 3 patients per care path and interviews with clinicians (12 per country, a total of 36) to assess their experiences with MetroMapping. The study is a pre-test and post-test multiple methods design, gathering both quantitative and qualitative data across care paths in the Netherlands, Spain and Denmark. Quantitative data will be collected via electronic (Castor EDC \& RedCap) and paper questionnaires. Participants will receive the first set of questionnaires, one week after their decision-making consult. Encompassing the following questionnaires (I-SHARE for perceived Shared Decision Making, Control Preferences Scale for the perceived roles in the actual decision, Decisions Made, Decisional Comfort Scale, SCIP B Information Provision, PEPPI-5 Perceived Efficacy in Patient-Physician Interactions, Trust in Oncologists, Health Literacy) and for the cost-effectiveness analysis for our partner (UMIT TIROL) the EORTC QLU C10-D and EQ-5D5l will be added to assess utilities. In the post-test participants will receive the second set of questionnaires, 6 months after the first set of questionnaires. This set encompasses (Healthcare Integration INTEGrate, Person Centered Coordinated Care Experiences P3CEQ, Decisional Regret Scale, Trust in Oncologists, EORTC QLU-C10D, EQ-5D5L, Productivity Cost Questionnaires. This study includes a pre-implementation comparison group, and results will be compared with post-implementation outcomes. Participants will complete the questionnaires and provide demographic and clinical data (consent for sharing medical file is asked) and an audio-recording of their consultation will be made. Participants in the post-phase will participate in interviews about their experiences with the implementation of MetroMapping. The audio-recordings will be transcribed and analyzed using the OPTION and 4SDM coding instruments. Data will be analyzed using both univariate and multivariate statistical methods. Transcript of audio-recordings will be analyzed using thematic analysis and the coding instruments.