Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Research Protocols
Date Submitted: Feb 9, 2024
Date Accepted: Jul 23, 2024
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Prognostic disclosure in metastatic breast cancer: protocol for a scoping review.
ABSTRACT
Background:
Prognostic disclosure enables shared decision-making by keeping patients informed about their health and involved in treatment-related choices. In metastatic cancer, patients who understand their prognosis are better placed to evaluate their health situation, have more realistic expectations about treatment, and better end-of-life care. However, many oncologists feel uncomfortable discussing prognoses with their patients, as they worry about causing psychological distress and diminishing hope. Other barriers to prognostic disclosure are associated with the inherent uncertainty of prognostication, which is especially prominent in metastatic breast cancer (mBC), as is a lack of timely discussions about end-of-life (EoL) care, and poor quality of care at EoL. Despite this background, a preliminary literature search has shown that, to date, knowledge about prognostic disclosure in mBC has not been systematically mapped.
Objective:
The overall aim of this scoping review is to comprehensively explore the existing literature pertaining to prognostic disclosure in mBC.
Methods:
This scoping review will follow Arksey and O’Malley’s expanded framework. We will systematically search electronic databases for peer-reviewed, published journal articles to identify appropriate studies. First, two members of the research team will independently review titles and abstracts. Then, they will review full texts to establish whether articles meet inclusion criteria. A data chart for collecting and sorting information will be developed. Results will be reported following the PRISMA-ScR (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis Extension for Scoping Reviews) guidelines and summarized quantitatively and qualitatively.
Results:
We expect to present the results in a scoping review in June 2024.
Conclusions:
The insights gained from this scoping review will inform the development of an interview schedule with oncologists, oncology residents, oncology nurses, and patients with mBC to explore their experiences, views, and perceptions about prognostic disclosure.
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