The Avatar Acceptability Study: Survivor, Parent and Community Willingness to Use Patient-Derived Xenografts to Personalize Cancer CareResearch in context

• Published in: EBioMedicine 2018-11, Vol.37, p.205-213
• Main Authors: C.E. Wakefield, E.L. Doolan, J.E. Fardell, C. Signorelli, V.F. Quinn, K.M. Tucker, A.F. Patenaude, G.M. Marshall, R.B. Lock, G. Georgiou, R.J. Cohn
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 2352-3964; 2352-3964

Background: Using patient-derived xenografts (PDXs) to assess chemosensitivity to anti-cancer agents in real-time may improve cancer care by enabling individualized clinical decision-making. However, it is unknown whether this new approach will be met with acceptance by patients, family and community. Methods: We used a cross-sectional structured survey to investigate PDX acceptability with 1550 individuals across Australia and New Zealand (648 survivors of adult and childhood cancer, versus 650 community comparisons; and 48 parents of childhood cancer survivors versus 204 community parents). We identified factors influencing willingness-to-use PDXs, willingness-to-pay, maximum acceptable wait-time, and maximum acceptable number of mice used per patient. Findings: PDXs were highly acceptable: >80% of those affected by cancer felt the potential advantages of PDXs outweighed the disadvantages (community participants: 68%). Survivors' and survivors' parents' most highly endorsed advantage was ‘increased chance of survival’. ‘Harm to animals’ was the least endorsed disadvantage for all groups. Cancer survivors were more willing to use PDXs than community comparisons [p