Childhood Cancer International Europe are currently supporting a project on oral maintenance treatments being run by the pharmaceutical company Servier.

CCI Europe believe the outcomes can be beneficial for our community and are looking for parents and patients who would be willing to share their experience with oral maintenance treatments.

They are looking for 3-4 participants from Ireland for interviews:

•  parents of children 2 to 10 years old (interview will take 40 minutes)
• children 10 to 12 years old AND their parent(s) (interview of parents will take 40 minutes, interview of children will take 15 minutes)

In all cases:
–  the children should be currently treated by an oral maintenance treatment at home (i.e. an oncologic treatment to be taken at home following treatment in hospital)
–  the total expected duration of this oral maintenance treatment should be at least 7 months (from the date the child started receiving it until the planned end)

The interviews will be conducted by Stethos/Exafield (a Research and Consulting company specialised in healthcare), who will contact the parents who agree to participate and schedule the exact date and time for the interview.

Objectives

The overall aim is to understand the difficulties of administering and taking pediatric oncology treatments in order to propose a solution improving and facilitating the preparation and administration of oral maintenance treatments in oncology for children aged 2 to 12 years old.

For this purpose, the study will:

• Assess the preparation/administration of the current oral maintenance treatment
  – detail the current administration
  – how the parents/the child feel about this treatment
  – any difficulty the parents or the child may experience with the treatment
• Present a new form (galenic and dispensing device) of an oral maintenance treatment and collect the respondent’s perception about it

How will the interviews be conducted?

• online interviews with shared screen, so that a presentation of the new galenic form can be shown to the participants.
• Approx. 2 weeks before, an observational booklet will be sent (by Stethos/Exafield) to the participants.
  There, the parents can document their feedback, feelings, issues they or their child experience with the oral maintenance treatment.  
  Some days before the interview, they will send the completed booklet to Stethos/Exafield. It will be discussed during the interview.

Timeline

• Interviews as soon as possible in the upcoming weeks.

CCI Europe have created a short form/survey with 5 questions for interested parents to fill in their data (to check the inclusion criteria and leave their contact details) so Stethos/Exafield can contact them to schedule the interviews: https://forms.office.com/r/MTqYgmGZAC

If you are interested in taking part, please complete this form.