The Experiences of Patients Living With Malignant Pleural Effusions

Up to 20 patients with malignant pleural effusions will be interviewed about their experiences of having this condition and its management.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Malignant Pleural Effusion

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Actual): 10

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United Kingdom
  • Gloucestershire
    • Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom, GL53 7AN
      • Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Patients with malignant pleural effusions

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

1. Adults diagnosed with a malignant pleural effusion
2. Has undergone either talc pleurodesis or IPC
3. Have signed a consent form prior to entering the study
4. Life expectancy > 6 weeks based on LENT guidelines (Low/Moderate risk group) - The LENT score calculation assigns 0 (<1500 IU/L) or 1 (>1500 IU/L) for pleural fluid LDH level; 0 to 3 points for matching ECOG performance scores (3 and 4 are combined); 0 (<9) or 1 (>9) for neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio; and 0 (lowest risk), 1 (moderate risk), or 3 (highest risk) for tumor type.

Exclusion Criteria:

1. Any patient who is unable to understand sufficient English to take part in the semi-structured interviews
2. Weakness or fatigue sufficient so that the patient is unable to take part in the interviews

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Number of groups / cohorts

2

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
Talc pleurodesis; Up to 10 patients who have had talc pleurodesis
IPC; Up to 10 patients who have had indwelling pleural catheters (IPC)

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Patient Experiences of living with malignant pleural effusion and different pleural procedures	Qualitative interviews - Interviews will be recorded on a digital audio recorder and then downloaded on to a password protected computer. The interviews will then be sent for transcription using secure email and anonymised. We will perform thematic analysis on the interview data. This is a process to help explore the experiences of the subject as they describe it rather than looking at how they talk about the experience. Themes will be drawn from the data following coding. Common codes relating to a theme, for example pain, will be identified and examples of text used to demonstrate the theme extracted. This will ensure a wide variety of quotes across the interviews rather than focusing on one main or a subset of interviews. We will use an inductive approach whereby themes will emerge and not be developed in advance. Emerging codes will be checked by the supervisory team. There will be no numerical, quantitative data for analysis.	4 weeks after IPC placement or talc pleurodesis

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Paul Perkins, MBBCh, Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): June 2, 2016
• Primary Completion (Actual): January 1, 2019
• Study Completion (Actual): January 14, 2019

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: April 12, 2017
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 31, 2017
• First Posted (Actual): August 1, 2017

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimated): October 3, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 30, 2025
• Last Verified: September 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Neoplasms by Site; Neoplasms; Respiratory Tract Diseases; Respiratory Tract Neoplasms; Thoracic Neoplasms; Pleural Neoplasms; Pleural Diseases; Pleural Effusion; Pleural Effusion, Malignant
• Other Study ID Numbers: 16/009/GHT

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO