HANSOM
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The role of thyroid cancer specific patient concerns inventory (PCI-TC) in enhancing shared decision making
IRAS ID
318180
Contact name
Dae Kim
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Royal Marsden Hospital
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 5 months, 1 days
Research summary
Differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC) is currently one of the most rapidly increasing tumours. Surgery to remove the entire thyroid gland (i.e. total thyroidectomy) remains the gold standard treatment for low-risk DTC with tumour size between 1cm to 4cm. American Thyroid Association guideline 2015 and British Thyroid Association guideline 2014 have proposed only removing the diseased half of thyroid gland (i.e. hemithyroidectomy) as potentially adequate treatment in low-risk DTC. This is because total thyroidectomy does not appear to offer an overall survival advantage over hemithyroidectomy, and subject patients to life-long hormone replacement therapy. However, the recent change in guidance is only based on retrospective and observational single-centre studies which are subject to various types of bias. Both clinicians and patients are now facing with more options with similar oncological outcomes. This clinical equipoise has resulted in high levels of confusion, dissatisfaction, and anxiety. Shared decision making where patient's concerns and preference are taken into account should lead to an improved patient experience, better quality of life and reduced health burden on the NHS.
Patient Concerns Inventory (PCI) is a tried and tested concept initially developed in the field of head and neck cancer that empowers patients during a clinical encounter through provision of a list of prompts that allows patient to self-report concerns prior to consultation. Recently, we have developed a Thyroid Cancer specific PCI, a 54-item prompt list.
We believe the thyroid cancer PCI will offer a new tool in thyroid cancer care to improve communication between healthcare professionals and patients. When used at diagnosis we hope thyroid cancer PCI will help tease out patient's top concerns and expectations regarding their treatment and care going forward, thus enhancing shared decision making, so that they are better informed and have confidence in their treatment preference/choices within the current equipoise.
REC name
North of Scotland Research Ethics Committee 2
REC reference
22/NS/0157
Date of REC Opinion
20 Dec 2022
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion