Personalised Patient Decision Aid for Ovarian Cancer
Research type
Research Study
Full title
IMproving outcomes for ovarian cancer Patients by Refining Evidenced based tools that drive Surgical Standardisation – Part 2 (IMPRESS 2): Developing a Personalised Patient Decision Aid for Ovarian Cancer Treatment
IRAS ID
362196
Contact name
Darren Flynn
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Northumbria at Newcastle
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 6 months, 17 days
Research summary
In some hospitals in England, 76% of women diagnosed with ovarian cancer are alive one year after diagnosis, in others, it is 61%. We believe these differences are due to how patients are treated. In part, because clinicians lack reliable information on how to use information from clinical trials, looking at the outcomes for many women, to consider the best treatment option for an individual woman. Currently, decisions about treatment are often made by teams of clinicians without involving the woman herself.
We believe that providing reliable information about the chance of survival for different treatments (e.g. surgery versus chemotherapy) for an individual patient will help clinicians and patients to make better decisions. Then it is likely that differences in survival after cancer will improve.
We aim to develop a tool called a patient decision aid (PDA) with predictions of benefits and risks of different treatments for patients depending on their personal characteristics. A PDA helps patients to understand and discuss their preferred treatment with a clinician as part of a shared decision making (SDM) process. SDM involves a patient (and their supporters, such as a family member or friend) and a clinician working together to choose a treatment option that is right for the individual patient. In turn, we believe this may improve outcomes for patients with ovarian cancer.
We will invite up to 70 patients and their supporters to take part in interviews, and group workshops to design an initial version of a PDA. We will then ask a sample of 20 patients to test whether this is acceptable and feasible for use in a SDM process. The refined version of the PDA will be tested in a clinical trial in the next phase of the research in 18 cancer centres, which is funded by the NIHR.
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Leeds East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
26/YH/0042
Date of REC Opinion
23 Mar 2026
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion