SURAB
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Willingness of clinicians and patients to randomise into a study comparing ABlation with active SURveillance, in the management of incidentally diagnosed small renal tumours: a feasibility study
IRAS ID
151842
Contact name
Naeem Soomro
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Research summary
This study is for patients with small kidney tumours. Before the study begins formally, we will ask a small group of patients to help us to test and develop the patient information for the study. Once the study begins formally we will ask patients who are invited to take part to tell us why they did or did not decide to take part. We will also ask about patient’s experiences of actually taking part in the study and perform study treatment procedures and follow up assessments. What we learn from this study will be crucial in helping us to refine the design of a future larger clinical trial.
Half of patients diagnosed with kidney cancer have a tumour less than 4cm in size. In these patients, the tumour normally grows very slowly and can often be safely observed for a period of time (active surveillance). Patients may then go on to have surgical interventions or newer less invasive ablative interventions. Ablative treatments are less intrusive to the patient, spare more of the kidney and are less complicated than major surgery which may involve having part of the kidney removed. There are however gaps in our knowledge about the new ablative techniques in terms of their ability to remove all of the cancer in one go – especially in the case of small tumours which can be difficult to manipulate because the margins can sometimes be tricky to identify. We do not know yet whether it is better to try to ablate these tumours while they are still small or wait and carefully observe them with a view to treating them later with an operation or ablation technique if they should become larger and potentially easier to manipulate. In this study we will therefore be comparing ablative techniques to active surveillance.
REC name
North East - Newcastle & North Tyneside 2 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/NE/0155
Date of REC Opinion
26 Jun 2014
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion