• Edward T H Fysh, Rajesh Thomas, Catherine A Read, Ben C H Kwan, Ben C H Lam, Elaine Yap, Fiona C Horwood, Pyng Lee, Francesco Piccolo, Ranjan Shrestha, Luke A Garske, David C L Lam, Andrew Rosenstengel, Michael Bint, Kevin Murray, Nicola A Smith, and Y C Gary Lee.
• Department of Respiratory Medicine, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Perth, Western Australia, Australia School of Medicine & Pharmacology, University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia Lung Institute of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.
• BMJ Open. 2014 Jan 1;4(11):e006757.

IntroductionMalignant pleural effusion can complicate most cancers. It causes breathlessness and requires hospitalisation for invasive pleural drainages. Malignant effusions often herald advanced cancers and limited prognosis. Minimising time spent in hospital is of high priority to patients and their families. Various treatment strategies exist for the management of malignant effusions, though there is no consensus governing the best choice. Talc pleurodesis is the conventional management but requires hospitalisation (and substantial healthcare resources), can cause significant side effects, and has a suboptimal success rate. Indwelling pleural catheters (IPCs) allow ambulatory fluid drainage without hospitalisation, and are increasingly employed for management of malignant effusions. Previous studies have only investigated the length of hospital care immediately related to IPC insertion. Whether IPC management reduces time spent in hospital in the patients' remaining lifespan is unknown. A strategy of malignant effusion management that reduces hospital admission days will allow patients to spend more time outside hospital, reduce costs and save healthcare resources.Methods And AnalysisThe Australasian Malignant Pleural Effusion (AMPLE) trial is a multicentred, randomised trial designed to compare IPC with talc pleurodesis for the management of malignant pleural effusion. This study will randomise 146 adults with malignant pleural effusions (1:1) to IPC management or talc slurry pleurodesis. The primary end point is the total number of days spent in hospital (for any admissions) from treatment procedure to death or end of study follow-up. Secondary end points include hospital days specific to pleural effusion management, adverse events, self-reported symptom and quality-of-life scores.Ethics And DisseminationThe Sir Charles Gairdner Group Human Research Ethics Committee has approved the study as have the ethics boards of all the participating hospitals. The trial results will be published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at scientific conferences.Trial Registration NumbersAustralia New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry-ACTRN12611000567921; National Institutes of Health-NCT02045121.Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

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