Abstract
This study was conducted to assess the feasibility, acceptability, and changes in knowledge among cancer patients assigned to receive a 160-page book on experimental cancer therapies and clinical trials. We enrolled 20 patients with cancer who had never participated in a clinical trial and randomly assigned them to receive the book either during week 1 or week 4 of the study. We collected baseline patient demographic and cancer-related information as well as knowledge about cancer clinical trials at week 0. Follow-up surveys were administered at weeks 3 and 6 for both study groups. Comparisons were made within and between groups randomized to receive the book early (at week 1) to those who received it later (at week 4). One hundred percent of data were captured in both groups at baseline, which decreased to 77.8 % by week 6. The vast majority of participants found the book moderately or very useful (89 % in the Early Group at week 3 and 95.5 % in the Late Group at week 6). Within group pairwise comparisons found significant difference between baseline and week 6 in content-specific knowledge scores among participants in the Late Group [79 % versus 92.1 %, p∈=∈0.01). Global knowledge scores increased significantly for variables reflecting knowledge that promotes decisions to participate in clinical trials. Providing published reading material to patients with cancer is both feasible and acceptable. Offering information to patients about cancer clinical trials, using a book designed for patients with cancer may influence knowledge related to decision to participate in clinical trials.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 181-187 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | Journal of Cancer Education |
Volume | 29 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Mar 2014 |
Keywords
- Cancer clinical trials
- Patient education
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Oncology
- Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health