French Therapeutic Education Programme Aimed at Improving the Quality of Life of Laryngectomised Patients and their Close Relations: the Three Stages (Observational and Interventional Randomised) of the Study “PETAL”

The therapeutic education of patients and their close relations is, as yet, poorly developed in France in the field of oncology. Total laryngectomy is a mutilating surgical procedure having a major impact on the patient’s life, due to its physical and functional sequelae. Its psychosocial consequences are also important and alter the quality of life of patients and their close relations. Currently, care for laryngectomised patients consists essentially in informing and educating them on some technical procedures during hospital admission. The intervention of a speech therapist, often serves as the link between the patient and the hospital care team. These healthcare modalities often insufficiently account for the social, environmental and personal factors that interact in health-related problems. This report presents the therapeutic education programme protocol “PETAL” for laryngectomised patients and their close relations to improve their quality of life. The trial will be conducted over three phases: (1) the “pilot” phase aims at developing knowledge on the consequences of laryngectomy on the quality of life of patients and their close relations and developed a pluridisciplinary therapeutic education program, (2) the prospective intervention “replication” phase aims at evaluating the programme’s transferability in three centres and (3) the cluster-randomised multicentric comparative intervention phase, will assess the benefits of the developed programme. Phase I identified nine themes of workshops related to therapeutic education, training and coordination of care. The developed programme should reinforce town-hospital links to improve help, follow-up and support for patients and their close relations.