A randomized clinical trial of TrialTALK, a communication tool to facilitate treatment-related shared decision making.

45Background: Cancer treatment decision making involves timely, high-risk, life altering shared decision-making conversations between patients, their families, and their oncologists. As such, these conversations are a prime target for a carefully designed, easy to interpret approach to facilitate preference-sensitive decision making. Patients need several important pieces of information delivered in a way that is easy to interpret. The TrialTALK approach has two core elements: a verbal approach and a pen and paper (P&P) diagram. The P&P diagram includes the diagnosis with prognostic implications, all available treatment options including best supportive care alone, estimates for efficacy, and anticipated impact on daily life. The verbal conversation corresponds to the diagram and includes a phrase to encourage deliberation, and empathic responses. Our trial is evaluating the effectiveness of TrialTALK to influence decision making, in particular clinical trial participation. Here, we report the results of ...