Trial Information

A Non-pharmacological Supportive Care Intervention for Patients With Lung Cancer and Their Caregivers in the Management of the Respiratory Distress Symptom Cluster.

OBJECTIVES:

- To consolidate knowledge of existing interventions and their characteristics.

- To seek patients', caregivers', and healthcare professionals' views on existing
interventions and to establish whether these groups utilize any additional
interventions not currently described in the literature.

- To explore patients' perspectives on interrelationships among symptoms, in terms of
clusters or causal relationships.

- To identify patients', caregivers', and healthcare professionals' views of the
desirable components/characteristics of a novel intervention.

- Explore what is 'usual care' in the context of the study.

OUTLINE: This is a multicenter study.

The management of cough and breathlessness in respiratory diseases and lung cancer is
assessed through a narrative review of interventions to support caregivers in providing
physical care to patients with cancer and explore qualitative patient symptom experience
with a particular focus on identifying specific characteristics and components of
interventions and identifying patients' and caregivers' explanations of how the respiratory
symptom cluster relates to other symptom experiences (e.g., fatigue, depression, anxiety).

Patients and caregivers undergo 2-3 face-to-face interviews to assess views on existing
interventions in terms of perceived effectiveness, acceptability, importance, and
feasibility; to establish whether additional interventions (formal or self-initiated) are
employed; to address patient and caregiver experiences of symptom interactions and clusters;
and to fine tune the content of the planned intervention and identify any synergies between
symptoms as discussed by patients. Healthcare professionals undergo similar assessments via
focus groups.

Patient and caregiver views on desirable components of a novel intervention are assessed by
means of Discrete Choice Experiment (DCE) using a 'Best-Worst Scaling' (BWS) approach to
allow identification of the relative importance of several attributes by means of a series
of scenarios to enable a focus on characteristics of a nonpharmacological intervention,
rather than requiring respondents to make judgments about the usefulness of specific
interventions (e.g., counseling, aromatherapy) with which they may be unfamiliar.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: This study will accrue 30-40 pairs of patients and caregivers.