SPECIAL: Standard or PalliativE Care In Advanced Lung cancer (V1.0)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
SPECIAL: Standard or PalliativE Care In Advanced Lung cancer Does early referral of patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer to UK specialist palliative care services make a difference in their quality of life or survival?
IRAS ID
149191
Contact name
Sam H Ahmedzai
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
5 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Lung cancer and specifically the non-small cell variety (abbreviated as NSCLC) is the commonest cancer in the UK. Patients with advanced disease have a poor outlook despite the best modern anti-cancer treatment.
Treatment planning for patients with NSCLC needs to take into account environmental and social factors, including addressing appropriate anti-cancer treatments. One way of ensuring that needs are met is to refer patients to specialist palliative care (SPC) services which can identify and deal with these issues. SPC allows patients to focus on their important priorities earlier, such as advance care planning, knowing when to withdraw from treatment, and what medical interventions they would like at the end of their life.
SPECIAL consists of two stages; a feasibility study followed by a large randomised controlled trial (RCT), and is designed to compare patient experiences, in terms of quality of life, between standard of care and an upfront early referral to SPC. The feasibility study is observational. Details of healthcare services received by 60 patients and their carers from the different parts of the UK will be recorded. Participants’ views on health and SPC services and the SPECIAL trial will be collected, via questionnaires and interviews, and the results will feed into the RCT.
The RCT will recruit a minimum of 525 patients who will be randomly allocated to either early referral to their local SPC team (within 4 weeks of diagnosis) or to standard care, where referral to the SPC team will be at a time to suit the patient’s needs. A second randomisation for the early referral group to the use of a holistic needs assessment tool called SPARC is included.
The study endpoints could be adapted to encompass all advanced cancers and the supporting role played by SPC within the NHS.
REC name
North West - Greater Manchester West Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/NW/0324
Date of REC Opinion
22 May 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion