TY - JOUR
T1 - Experiences of participants in a clinical trial of a novel radioactive treatment for advanced prostate cancer
T2 - A nested, qualitative longitudinal study
AU - Viljoen, Bianca
AU - Hofman, Michael S.
AU - Chambers, Suzanne K.
AU - Dunn, Jeff
AU - Dhillon, Haryana M.
AU - Davis, Ian D.
AU - Ralph, Nicholas
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding support was received from a ANZUP Below the Belt Grant (QualTheraP: a nested, multi-perspective longitudinal qualitative study of participants) (MSH, SKC, JD, HMD, IDD, NR). The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Centre of Research Excellence provided further funding support through a PhD Scholarship (BV). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The authors would like to thank all participants involved in this study. The QualTheraP sub-study was completed in partnership with the Australian and New Zealand Urogenital and Prostate (ANZUP) Cancer Trials Group and Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia (PCFA). We would also like to thank the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital for their assistance to the study team. MSH would additional like thank the Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) supported by CANICA AS, Oslo, Norway; and the Peter MacCallum Foundation for program support.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Viljoen et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
PY - 2022/11
Y1 - 2022/11
N2 - Objectives Qualitative studies nested within clinical trials can provide insight into the treatment experience, how this evolves over time and where improved supportive care is required. The purpose of this qualitative study is to describe the lived experiences of men with advanced prostate cancer participating in the TheraP trial; a randomised trial of 177Lu-PSMA-617 compared with cabazitaxel chemotherapy. Methods Fifteen men with advanced prostate cancer were recruited from the TheraP clinical trial with interviews conducted at three timepoints during the trial. An interpretative phenomenological approach was used, and interviews analysed using thematic analysis. This research paper reports the results from the mid-point, conclusion and follow up interviews, focusing specifically on participants’ experiences of trial participation. Results Three themes were identified representing the lived experiences of men with advanced prostate cancer participating in the TheraP trial: (1) facing limited options; (2) anticipating outcomes and (3) coping with health changes. Conclusions Men who enrol in clinical trial of anti-neoplastic treatments for prostate cancer need targeted psychological and supportive care that includes attention to unique aspects of the experience of having prostate cancer and being in a clinical trial. As part of their trial experience, men with advanced prostate cancer need to be regularly assessed for survivorship needs, fully informed, supported and referred to services for regular care and support across the trajectory of their disease.
AB - Objectives Qualitative studies nested within clinical trials can provide insight into the treatment experience, how this evolves over time and where improved supportive care is required. The purpose of this qualitative study is to describe the lived experiences of men with advanced prostate cancer participating in the TheraP trial; a randomised trial of 177Lu-PSMA-617 compared with cabazitaxel chemotherapy. Methods Fifteen men with advanced prostate cancer were recruited from the TheraP clinical trial with interviews conducted at three timepoints during the trial. An interpretative phenomenological approach was used, and interviews analysed using thematic analysis. This research paper reports the results from the mid-point, conclusion and follow up interviews, focusing specifically on participants’ experiences of trial participation. Results Three themes were identified representing the lived experiences of men with advanced prostate cancer participating in the TheraP trial: (1) facing limited options; (2) anticipating outcomes and (3) coping with health changes. Conclusions Men who enrol in clinical trial of anti-neoplastic treatments for prostate cancer need targeted psychological and supportive care that includes attention to unique aspects of the experience of having prostate cancer and being in a clinical trial. As part of their trial experience, men with advanced prostate cancer need to be regularly assessed for survivorship needs, fully informed, supported and referred to services for regular care and support across the trajectory of their disease.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85141497818
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0276063
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0276063
M3 - Article
C2 - 36350899
AN - SCOPUS:85141497818
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 17
JO - PLoS ONE
JF - PLoS ONE
IS - 11
M1 - e0276063
ER -
SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being