Efficiency of Diagnostic Strategy for Fast Track Lung Cancer Diagnosis

December 2, 2014 updated by: University of Aarhus

Efficiency of Diagnostic Strategy for Fast Track Lung Cancer Diagnosis. A Randomised Controlled Trial.

Annually, 4,200 new cases of lung cancer are diagnosed in Denmark. The stage of the disease is an important prognostic factor as an advanced stage reduces the opportunity for surgical intervention and other curative treatment. In denmark, as in many other countries, a fast track evaluation for lung cancer has been introduced in 2008.

When the general practitioners refer patients through the fast track, the majority of patients make their first visit to the Department of Pulmonary Medicine. After this visit, further investigation is initiated, which is often a CT scan of the chest and the upper abdomen. We dont know Whether this is the most appropriate organisation.

The aim of this project is to evaluate the way lung cancer patients are examined through the fast track and the impact of chest CT before an evaluation by a chest physician.

Investigators want to randomise all patients referred for the existing fast track to either direct CT scan of chest and upper abdomen or to evaluation by the chest physician, in order to test:

A) Fast track performance measured by number of CT scans and chest physician specialist time per diagnosis, and whether there is a difference between the intervention and the control group.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

331

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Denmark
      • Aarhus, Denmark, 8000
        • Aarhus University
      • Aarhus, Denmark, 8000
        • Department of lung medicine, Aarhus University Hospital

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child
  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • All patients referred to fast track evaluation (lung department, Aarhus university hospital) from primary care.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Not referred from general practice

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: CT scan before chest physician
Radiation: CT scan before chest physician
Patients referred to department of lung medicine are randomised according to the month of birth. Patients born in even months are CT scan before a consultation with a chest physician
Active Comparator: Usual diagnostic workup
Radiation: Usual diagnostic workup
Patients born in odd months seen in the department of lung medicine by a chest physician and maybe then CT scanned (usual workup practice according to the fast track evaluation)

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Chest physician time
Time Frame: 2013
Time (in minutes) spent by a chest physician pr patient
2013

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Satisfaction with new organisation
Time Frame: 2013
Measured with a qualitative focus interview with staff a the Department of lung medicine (doctors, nurses and secretary).
2013

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of Aarhus

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Peter Vedsted, M.D., Prof., The Research Unit for General Practice

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

January 1, 2012

Primary Completion (Actual)

August 1, 2013

Study Completion (Actual)

January 1, 2014

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

January 28, 2013

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 29, 2013

First Posted (Estimate)

January 30, 2013

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

December 3, 2014

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 2, 2014

Last Verified

August 1, 2013

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 118/2011

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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