Skip to content

Improving Patient-Centered Communication in Breast Cancer Through Patient and Provider Interventions

Improving Patient-Centered Communication in Breast Cancer: A RCT of a Shared Decision Engagement System (SHARES)

Status
Active, not recruiting
Phases
NA
Study type
Interventional
Source
ClinicalTrials.gov
Registry ID
NCT04549571
Acronym
SHARES
Enrollment
543
Registered
2020-09-16
Start date
2021-02-16
Completion date
2027-01-31
Last updated
2025-04-02

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Anatomic Stage 0 Breast Cancer AJCC v8, Anatomic Stage IA Breast Cancer AJCC v8, Anatomic Stage IB Breast Cancer AJCC v8, Anatomic Stage I Breast Cancer AJCC v8, Anatomic Stage IIA Breast Cancer AJCC v8, Anatomic Stage IIB Breast Cancer AJCC v8, Anatomic Stage II Breast Cancer AJCC v8, Anatomic Stage IIIA Breast Cancer AJCC v8, Anatomic Stage IIIB Breast Cancer AJCC v8, Anatomic Stage III Breast Cancer AJCC v8, Anatomic Stage IIIC Breast Cancer AJCC v8, Prognostic Stage 0 Breast Cancer AJCC v8, Prognostic Stage IA Breast Cancer AJCC v8, Prognostic Stage IB Breast Cancer AJCC v8, Prognostic Stage I Breast Cancer AJCC v8, Prognostic Stage IIA Breast Cancer AJCC v8, Prognostic Stage IIB Breast Cancer AJCC v8, Prognostic Stage II Breast Cancer AJCC v8, Prognostic Stage IIIA Breast Cancer AJCC v8, Prognostic Stage IIIB Breast Cancer AJCC v8, Prognostic Stage III Breast Cancer AJCC v8, Prognostic Stage IIIC Breast Cancer AJCC v8

Brief summary

This trial studies the effectiveness of two interventions on patient reported outcomes of patient centered communication and decision making about breast cancer treatment. The first intervention consists of enhancements to an existing patient-facing breast cancer treatment decision tool called iCanDecide that supports the management of worry, distress, and anxiety as compared to an existing tool. The second intervention consists of a clinician dashboard that populates information after patients view either website regarding any ongoing issues or concerns.

Detailed description

The primary and key secondary objectives of the study: PRIMARY OBJECTIVES: I. To demonstrate that the enhanced iCanDecide (iCanDecide-emotional support enhancement \[ESE\]) intervention is more effective than the standard version (iCanDecide-standard \[S\]) resulting in higher patient knowledge about locoregional treatment risks and benefits. II. To demonstrate that the activation of the clinician dashboard (CDB) is more effective than not using a CDB, resulting in higher patient knowledge about locoregional treatment risks and benefits. SECONDARY OBJECTIVES: I. To demonstrate that the enhanced iCanDecide (iCanDecide-ESE) intervention is more effective than the standard version (iCanDecide-S), resulting in higher patient-reported breast cancer self-efficacy and lower patient reported cancer worry. II. To demonstrate that the activation of the clinician dashboard (CDB) is more effective than not using a CDB, resulting in higher patient-reported breast cancer self-efficacy and lower patient reported cancer worry. OUTLINE: This study is a multi-level trial of SHaDES that has two interventions in a factorial or crossed design: 1) an individually randomized patient-level randomized controlled trial (RCT) to evaluate the standard version (iCanDecide-S) vs. a version with innovative emotional support enhancements (iCanDecide-ESE), and 2) a clinic-level stepped-wedge cluster randomized trial to test a Clinician Dashboard (CDB). Twenty-five surgical practices will be recruited for participation. Practices will be randomized to the timing of the CDB intervention, with some practices initiating the CDB intervention right away, while others may initiate the CDB later or perhaps be randomized to no CDB period. Clinicians will be asked to use the CDB beginning in the time period to which their practice was randomized and continuing to the end of the study. After registration, clinicians are followed up at 9 and 18 months. After a patient is registered, the patient will be randomized to one of two arms: ARM I: Patients utilize the iCanDecide - ESE website, then undergo surgery within 5 weeks of registration. Patients may also participate in an audio-recorded phone interview over 20 minutes at 9-12 months post registration. ARM II: Patients utilize the iCanDecide - S website, then undergo surgery within 5 weeks of registration. Patients may also participate in an audio-recorded phone interview over 20 minutes at 9-12 months post registration. After study registration, patients are followed up at 4-5 weeks and 9 months. Patients will be enrolled at participating clinics during the full duration of the study and all enrolled patients will receive a version of the decision support tool (iCanDecide-S; iCanDecide-ESE). These patient-level activities are not influenced by the timing of the practice-level randomization to the CDB.

Interventions

OTHERDecision Aid iCanDecide - ESE website

Utilize the iCanDecide - ESE website

OTHERDecision Aid iCanDecide - S website

Utilize the iCanDecide - S website

PROCEDURETherapeutic Conventional Surgery

Undergo surgery

OTHERInterview

Participate in interview

OTHERTraining

Receive training

OTHERMedia Intervention

Utilize the CDB

OTHERBest Practice

Utilize usual care

OTHERSurvey Administration

Ancillary studies

OTHERQuality-of-Life Assessment

Ancillary studies

Sponsors

National Cancer Institute (NCI)
CollaboratorNIH
Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology
Lead SponsorOTHER

Study design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
FACTORIAL
Primary purpose
HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH
Masking
DOUBLE (Subject, Caregiver)

Masking description

The enhanced content of the ESE version iCanDecide-ESE is available to the patient, but does not populate differently into the CDB, allowing clinicians to remain blinded to the patient-level randomization arm; therefore, both the patient and the practice and clinicians will be blinded as to which arm the patient is assigned to. However, the surgical practices and their clinicians will know when they are using the CDB so the clinician level intervention will not be blinded.

Eligibility

Sex/Gender
FEMALE
Healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

* PATIENT ELIGIBILITY * Women newly diagnosed with stage 0-III breast cancer. Although men are recommended to undergo surgery to treat breast cancer, male breast cancer is relatively rare and decision making for breast cancer surgery is quite different between men and women * Planning breast surgery as a component of their definitive treatment within 5 weeks of registration * Receives care from a clinician and at a practice that has consented to participate in the clinician dashboard practice-level intervention. Practices/clinicians will consent initially at the initiation of the study. Patients will then be identified and recruited in those practices. If a practice has more than one clinician doing breast surgery, patients will be recruited from those clinicians who consent (one or more). Patients of clinicians who have not consented will not be eligible * Patients must be able to speak English or Spanish with the fluency required to have a direct discussion around treatment decision-making (i.e. without interpreter) * Age 21-84 years * CLINICIAN STAKEHOLDER (SURGEONS AND CLINIC STAFF) ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA * Clinicians eligible for this study include: breast surgeons and their designee(s) (e.g., physician assistants, nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, or nurses) that participate in the treatment decision-making process. At least one surgical oncologist at a practice must agree to participate and sign consent. S/he may then also identify a nurse, physician assistant (PA) or advanced practice provider (APP) with whom s/he works that is involved in the delivery of the care of the same patients to participate. Henceforth, in this protocol they will be referred to as clinicians * Clinicians must agree to have their patients recruited for the entire time the study is open at their practice, which will include time periods in which the clinicians will and time periods in which they will not have access to the CDB * INSTITUTION ELIGIBILITY: * Practices that annually provide surgical care for over 100 patients newly diagnosed with breast cancer are eligible to participate in this study * Eligible practices must have at least one surgical oncologist who agrees to participate in the study

Exclusion criteria

* Patients who are visually impaired are not eligible, as they must be able to access the study intervention on a website at home or in clinic and view the decision aid * Patients with impaired decision-making capacity (such as with a diagnosis of dementia or memory loss) are not eligible for this study * Practices currently enrolling to Alliance A231701CD are not eligible to participate in this study

Design outcomes

Primary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Patient knowledge about risks and benefits of local regional treatmentAt 4-5 weeks post patient randomizationWill be defined as the percentage of correct answers (range: 0-100%) from a 5-item scale previously developed and pilot tested where higher percentages indicate increased knowledge of treatment risks and benefits of local regional treatment. Because the interventions are fully crossed (with intervention and control patients within both intervention and control practices for every time period), the intervention effect of iCanDecide-E and the intervention effect of the clinician dashboard (CDB) will be obtained from a single linear mixed-effects model for the continuous primary outcome measure patient knowledge.

Secondary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Patient self-efficacy in dealing with breast cancerAt 4-5 weeks post patient randomizationWill be defined as the composite score obtained from the 11-item (each rated on a 5-point Likert scale: strongly disagree to strongly agree) validated scale designed to assess breast cancer patients' overall feelings of control of their cancer and worry about their cancer (range: 11 to 55); higher scores indicate increased self-efficacy. Because the interventions are fully crossed (with intervention and control patients within both intervention and control practices for every time period), the intervention effect of iCanDecide-E and the intervention effect of the clinician dashboard (CDB) will be obtained from a single linear mixed-effects model for the continuous secondary outcome measure patient self-efficacy.
Patient cancer worryAt 4-5 weeks post patient randomizationWill be defined as the total score obtained from the 8-item (each rated on a 4-point Likert scale: never to almost always) validated Cancer Worry Scale assessing the degree of cancer-related worry (range: 8 to 40); higher scores indicate more frequent worries about cancer. Because the interventions are fully crossed (with intervention and control patients within both intervention and control practices for every time period), the intervention effect of iCanDecide-E and the intervention effect of the clinician dashboard (CDB) will be obtained from a single linear mixed-effects model for the continuous secondary outcome measure patient cancer worry.

Countries

United States

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Feb 10, 2026