Preference-based Decision Aid to Support Participatory Decisions About Tumor-specific and Palliative Therapy in the Last Months of Life

Decisions about the provision of anticancer therapy and the initiation of palliative care in the last months of life are frequent and challenging in clinical practice. Research indicates that there is considerable heterogeneity regarding clinical practice in this context and that oncologists' values influence treatment decisions, as well as whether or not patients participate in these decisions. While there is evidence that seriously ill patients differ in their choices between treatment options compared to healthy persons, as well as in their evaluation of treatment goals and related care settings, there is a lack of analysis regarding criteria relevant to patients in the last 6 months of life, when assessing the benefit of anticancer treatment and palliative care. Yet, in decisions about anticancer treatment and involvement of palliative care, patients' preferences and values are of particular importance since anticancer treatment - while associated with high expectations for a positive effect - often has only marginal influence on prognosis towards the end of a cancer trajectory and sometimes forestalls choosing a palliative care setting or coping with the disease. Hence, the decision has a high impact on patients' last months of life. Involving patients more actively in the planning of their care has been on the agenda for more than a decade, but the implementation of this idea in routine clinical practice remains a challenge. Instead, oncologists often avoid prognosticating and eliciting patient preferences for or against anticancer treatment and values in the last phase of life. One important reason is that oncologists report discussions about ending anticancer therapy the most challenging communication task.

To support advanced cancer patients, for whom standard therapy is no longer available, and their oncologists in therapy decisions, the investigators aim to develop a decision-making aid (DA) in a multi-phased bicentric study. The DA aims to help patients to understand better risks and benefits of available treatment options including the options of standard palliative care, off-label drug use within an individual treatment plan and involvement in early clinical trials.

Methods and analysis:

In phase I, the DA will be developed after exploration of decisional needs of patients and views of health care providers based on face-to face interviews and focus groups discussions. Subsequently, the DA will be alpha-tested and redrafted, as necessary, in phase II. In phase III, the DA will be (1) beta-tested with patients and oncologists and (2), and assessed by experts. In the last project phase, the investigators will run a pre-post design study with doctor-patient-encounters to access improvements on primary study outcome, i.e. patients' level of decisional conflict. In addition, the user acceptance will be tested.