Revealing Information Genuinely & Honestly Across Time: Pediatric Oncology Stakeholder Preferences and Recommendations for Prognostic Communication

This study will have two phases.

Phase 1:

Investigators will define key stakeholder preferences and recommendations for timing, content, and delivery of prognostic communication across the advancing illness course and bereavement. Eligible parents and patients will participate in semi-structured interviews on prognostic communication preferences, stratified by cohort: poor-prognosis diagnosis, advancing disease, phase I/II trial enrollment, and bereavement; eligible oncologists will complete interviews on prognostic disclosure preferences. Participants will participate in a single interview that will last anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes.The interview will be audio-recorded and transcribed. Participant demographic and social determinants of health information will be collected.

Phase 2:

Investigators will partner with a smaller group of stakeholders (parents, patients, and oncologist) from phase 1 to develop a clinical communication guide to help improve communication between patients, families, and cancer doctors. The panel will meet across 4 sessions to develop a conceptual framework that explains the interconnecting variables influencing stakeholder preferences and to design a prognostic communication intervention (i.e., a RIGHTime communication guide) that encourages oncologists to provide individualized, timely prognostic disclosure.

Inclusion criteria

Patients

• Aged 12-25 years
• Recent diagnosis (< 3 months) of a poor prognosis cancer with an estimated survival of 50% or less by the primary oncologist (cohort 1) OR recent history of disease relapse/progression within the past 3 months (cohort 2) OR active enrollment on a phase I/II trial (cohort 3).
• English-speaking

Parents

• Aged 18 years or older
• Parent (or legal caregiver) of a child with cancer of any age who meets the above criteria for cohorts 1-3 OR of a child who died from cancer 6-24 months from enrollment (cohort 4).
• English-speaking

Oncologists

• Pediatric oncologists who treat patients at SJCRH or who refer patients for treatment to SJCRH

Exclusion criteria

• Does not meet the inclusion criteria.