Diagnostics and Therapy of Disease-Related Quality of Life of Patients With Breast Cancer

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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Quality of Life-Diagnostics and -Therapy in Individual Patients with Breast Cancer. A randomized study including 200 patients, 5 clinics and 43 general practitioners as coordinating doctors for quality of life therapies.

Detailed Description
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Quality of life (QL) is increasingly being accepted as an important endpoint in clinical studies, however little is known about its diagnostic value in order to optimize the therapy of cancer patients. This project at the Tumorcentre Regensburg aims to integrate QL-diagnostics into the therapy of patients with breast cancer and to evaluate the efficacy of QL-diagnostics in the context of a randomized clinical trial. The Tumorcentre Regensburg provides the infrastructure of the present project (telemedicine, project groups, quality circle). Breast cancer patients' therapy is based on the recent national breast cancer therapy guideline, including assorted QL-enhancing therapy options, such as pain therapy, physiotherapy and lymphatic drainage, psychotherapy, social counseling and rehabilitation, nutrition and sports. In the course of an implementation phase, a new method of QL diagnostics has been developed. Five experts with varying professional background use the individual patient's QL profile and clinical and sociodemographic information in order to generate a QL-report including a therapy recommendation. This is a two-arm randomized clinical trial with one test group (communication of the QL-finding to the coordinating physician) and a control group (no communication). Patients with newly diagnosed breast cancer who are treated in the study region by one of the coordinating doctors will be included in this randomized study. QL-assessments (EORTC QLQ-C30 plus BR23) will be taken at designated points in time over a 12 months time course. Finally, patients will provide an overall evaluation of the course and the effects of the therapy using an open-ended questionnaire. We expect that patients in the test group will experience a lower number of QL-deficits at the end of the study period (Median 1 +/- 2) than patients of the control group (Median 2 +/- 2). The statistical confirmation of this expected effect requires a total sample size of N = 200 (n=100 vs. n=100, alpha = 5% [two-tailed], beta = 10%). This is the first study to evaluate a new form of QL-diagnostics in the complexity of a real patient care environment. This study promises to reveal important new insights into advanced patient care and will make the inclusion of the quality of life concept in the current breast cancer treatment guideline more concrete.

Official Title
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Diagnostics and Therapy of Disease-Related Quality of Life of Patients With Breast Cancer: Protocol of a Randomized Clinical Trial at the Tumor Center Regensburg

Conditions
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Breast Neoplasms

Intervention / Treatment
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* Behavioral: physio,pain,psychotherapy;social,nutrit.counselling&sports


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: All patients with primary breast cancer in the county of Regensburg, Amberg and Sulzbach-Rosenberg from November 2004 to approximately June 2006 submitted by coordinating physicians who were trained in quality of life questionnaires and profiles Exclusion Criteria: Secondary breast cancer, patients who refused to participate, patients incapable of filling out questionnaires, male patients, pregnant patients, age below 18 yrs.

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 18 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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Female

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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No

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Treatment
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Single


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Experimental: 1<br>Patient's reported questionaire, profile in 10 dimensions (EORTC) and referees' report with treatment recommendations | Behavioral: physio,pain,psychotherapy;social,nutrit.counselling&sports<br>* profile and treatment recommendations based on the profile vs. routine psychooncology<br>|
| Experimental: 2<br>Patient's reported questionaire; no recommendations given | Behavioral: physio,pain,psychotherapy;social,nutrit.counselling&sports<br>* profile and treatment recommendations based on the profile vs. routine psychooncology<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| amount of QL-deficits at several intervals and at the end of the study period (1 year postoperatively) |  | operation till 1 year after operation | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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Quality of Life, Breast Cancer, Referee's Report, Diagnostics, Therapy