Lung cancer patients’ attitudes to a second course of radiotherapy
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A qualitative study of patients’ attitudes to the risks and potential benefits of potential toxicities of radical re-irradiation for lung cancer
IRAS ID
289918
Contact name
Stephen Harrow
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Patients with lung cancer are often treated with high dose x-ray treatment (radical radiotherapy) to control the disease. After one course of radiotherapy, after a period of time, there is a risk that the cancer can come back in either the same place or nearby in the lungs. This happens to about 700 patients in the UK every year. There is no strong evidence to suggest what the best treatment is in this situation.
One possible treatment is a second course of radiotherapy (re-irradiation). Early studies show that a re-irradiation may cause significant side effects like breathlessness or problems swallowing, but may control the cancer for a long period of time. We want to do a clinical trial to investigate if re-irradiation improves cancer control compared to other treatments to help guide treatment for patients with recurrent disease.
Before we can go ahead with the trial, we would like to talk to patients who are have completed radiotherapy to find out what are their feelings about having a second course of radiotherapy if needed, and how the side effects from the initial course of radiotherapy or the projected side-effects from the second course would affect that decision.
This information is vitally important to help develop a trial about re-irradiation in lung cancer as it will demonstrate if patients would accept a second course of radiotherapy, and, by accounting for patient concerns in the trial design, will make it more likely to recruit well.
This study will perform telephone interviews with patients five weeks after completing a course of radical radiotherapy for lung cancer at the Beatson Cancer Centre. We expect to interview 16-30 patients. This study will run over the course of 1 year. This research is funded by the Beatson Cancer Charity and The University of Glasgow.REC name
South East Scotland REC 01
REC reference
21/SS/0015
Date of REC Opinion
10 Mar 2021
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion