Examine the construct validity, short-term stability, internal consistency and item-response performance of a health-related needs assessment self-report instrument for adult childhood cancer survivors.

Cheryl Cox, RN, PhD

This feasibility study will determine the psychometric adequacy of a newly developed instrument - Childhood Cancer Survivor Study Needs Assessment Questionnaire (CCSS-NAQ). Additionally, the study will explore the feasibility of selected study methods -- sample selection, length of time to complete recruitment, and response rates - in order to inform a larger national periodic survey of adult survivors' health related needs

This study will focus on the following primary and secondary objectives:

1. Examine the construct validity, short-term stability, internal consistency and item-response performance of a health-related needs assessment self-report instrument for adult childhood cancer survivors
2. Inform future sample stratification by over-sampling minority and rural-dwelling survivors to enhance the heterogeneity of the respondent pool;
3. Describe the met and unmet health-related needs and their covariates in a large, stratified, random sample of childhood cancer survivors;
4. Evaluate the sample selection methods, length of time to complete recruitment, and response rates in the study sample.

Investigating the Needs of Childhood Cancer Survivors: The Unreported Experience

National Cancer Institute (NCI)

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

Neoplasms

Digestive System Diseases

All Conditions

Behaviors and Mental Disorders

Colorectal Neoplasms

Intestinal Neoplasms

Gastrointestinal Neoplasms

Digestive System Neoplasms

Gastrointestinal Diseases

Colonic Diseases

Intestinal Diseases

Rectal Diseases

Quality of Life

Coherent navigation and support from a family-centred viewpoint throughout the cancer trajectory, despite the individual patient's affiliation to any department.

Department-specific coordination and answers to questions from a patient-centred viewpoint.

Nurse navigation

Current care coordination

Lise Fillion, PhD

Jens Søndergaard, PhD

Marianne K Thygesen, PhD

Niels Qvist, DMSc

In western countries, the number of cancer survivors increases, and current cancer care seems insufficient with both patients' experiences of lack of help in transitions and up to 60 % of the patients having psychological problems after treatment. Further, Denmark shall have new hospitals, where researchers and healthcare professionals are expected to merge tasks and reach a higher patient experienced quality of care, without additional costs, so a better way to provide cancer care, which benefits the patients and supports the ideas within the new hospitals in Denmark, is needed.

In a randomized controlled trial, the organizational structure of the healthcare system is challenged and the impact of a coherent nurse navigation practice compared to the currently existing department-specific care coordination is tested. The primary data are changes in patients' self-reported cancer-related self-efficacy from inclusion till one week after receipt of the information that they have reached the end of treatment, or in case of prolonged treatment, till not later than one year after inclusion.

Patients can participate if they are 18 years of age or older, speak and understand Danish, and have a proven lesion suspected of cancer in the colon or rectum after colonoscopy or sigmoidoscopy at the Danish endoscopy centers at Odense University Hospital (the cities: Nyborg, Svendborg and Odense) or at Slagelse Hospital. Furthermore, participants must not be mentally retarded, they must not suffer from a constant life-threatening disease, and they must not suffer from, or be in the diagnostic phase of, dementia or severe psychiatric disease.

Participants are allocated to support from nurse navigation or to current care coordination, and fill in four questionnaires during their cancer trajectory: 1) At inclusion, 2) Three days before treatment start, 3) One week after receipt of information about treatment end or not later than one year after inclusion, and 4) Six weeks after measure point 3. Data is analyzed using suitable statistical models.

With positive results, participants in nurse navigation are better helped during their cancer trajectory and have a better psychological start on the rest of their lives after cancer treatment. Focus will be on colon and rectum cancer care, but the results will be transferable to similar settings. Furthermore, positive results will support changes in the onset of rehabilitation initiatives.

The primary hypothesis in this study is:

Nurse navigation, as a specific, defined concept of coherent help through cancer trajectories, will prove superior to current care coordination with regard to patients' self-evaluated self-efficacy for cancer from inclusion to one week after receipt of information about treatment end or not later than one year after inclusion.

Allocation The randomization will be stratified by age and gender. The rational is that age and gender is differently associated with benefit by a given care.

Data collection Participants fill in questionnaires at four measurements, and supplements to sociodemographic information as well as information for an economic evaluation is collected from provider side.

The questionnaires for participants are available in paper and electronically, and participants are allowed to discuss the individual questions with a person whom they trust before filling in their answers. If a participant is blind or dyslexic and has no one to help them fill in the questionnaires, a trained study nurse will read out loud the questions and fill in the participant's answers, and eventually in this process, listen to the participant's pros and cons, acknowledge that they are heard, ask for an answer and read out loud the question again. All data are stored in Research Electronic Data Capture (RedCap).

Blinding The trial is not blinded but all participants are told, there is no favorite group. The statistician is blinded to randomization group and this blinding will be unveiled after the data is analyzed.

Statistics Data are analyzed following the modified intention-to-treat principle, which is carried out by a senior statistician in close collaboration with the research group. Usual descriptive statistics will be used to summarize baseline and subject characteristics. The analyses of the primary endpoint, i.e. change in self-evaluated self-efficacy for cancer from inclusion (measurement 1) to end of treatment (measurement 3), and the secondary outcomes are done using analysis of covariance of the measure at measurement 3 with randomization group as a factor and measure at measurement 1 as covariate. In secondary analyses for all endpoints (measurement 1-4), the change over time will be investigated by mixed effects repeated measures analysis with randomization group as factor and random effects for subjects. These analyses are repeated within the subgroup of all cancer patients and the subgroup of cancer patients treated with curative aim. In the subgroup analyses, the influence of relevant subject-level confounders such as age, disease-stage, treatment, etc. will be explored, and appropriate adjustment will be performed. An economic evaluation will be performed for each randomized group and compared.

Nurse Navigation Versus Current Care Coordination During Colorectal Cancer Trajectories

NaviCan. Navigation and Support to Cancer Patients - A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Qualitatively validated questions answered by participants

Patients experienced needs and degree of fulfilled support

European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of life questionnaire with 30 questions (EORCT QLQ-c30).

University of Southern Denmark

Laval University

Slagelse Hospital

Region of Southern Denmark

Region Zealand

Danish Cancer Society

Odense Patient Data Explorative Network

Odense University Hospital

Associate professor

interview of the primary caregivers to identify their needs and expectations, the implementation of a "personalized support program", including telephone follow-up

personalized support program

GAXATTE Cédric, MD

Elderly cancer patients need more help from their relatives and for longer than young adults.

Our hypothesis of research is that the needs and resources to help the couple " elderly patient/caregiver ", are at least in part socially determined and that the implementation of a personalized support plan to help the caregiver (PSP) taking into account needs, resources and expectations of the primary caregiver in addition to those of elderly patients with cancer may partly correct inequalities. The PSP should allow a better management of cancer, a lesser burden for the caregiver and a better quality of life for both the caregiver and the patient.

Scientific context Elderly cancer patients need more help from their relatives and for longer than young adults. The person who takes primary responsibility for someone who cannot care fully for themselves is called the primary caregiver.

A recent personal study concerning elderly cancer patients caregivers show that most caregivers reported high or moderate levels of psychological distress, with an impact on their own health status.

In addition, family caregivers often report deficits in information about the disease, in training and skills related to their patients' care, and a lack of assistance from healthcare professionals.

The ability of the primary caregiver to meet the medical, material and emotional needs of the patient depends on their own resources (psychological, physical, intellectual, physical, financial) and on the diversity of their social network, but it also depends on the quality of the personalized support program (including information and training) that has been established for them.

Research hypotheses

Our hypothesis of research is that the needs and resources to help the couple " elderly patient/caregiver ", are at least in part socially determined and that the implementation of a personalized support plan to help the caregiver (PSP) taking into account needs, resources and expectations of the primary caregiver in addition to those of elderly patients with cancer may partly correct inequalities. The PSP should allow a better management of cancer, a lesser burden for the caregiver and a better quality of life for both the caregiver and the patient.

Intervention description

Prospective, interventional, randomized trial, with 118 patients in each group:

* an experimental interventional arm including an interview of the primary caregivers to identify their needs and expectations, the implementation of a "personalized support program", including telephone follow-up
* A control arm corresponding to the standard care. Caregiver aid is usually proposed when accompanying a sick relative in consultation or hospitalization.

All the "couples patient / caregiver' will benefit initially from:

1. a comprehensive geriatric assessment (elderly patients with cancer)
2. an assessment of caregiver burden by the Zarit burden interview (ZBI)
3. an assessment of subjective well-being
4. an individual assessment of the precariousness and health inequalities based on the score EPICES (Evaluation of precariousness and health inequalities in the health Centers)

Randomization will be stratified according to:

* living in the same household or not
* score of initial Zarit Burden Interview

Intervention Stage 1: A semi-structured interview centered on the caregiver's needs (COAT tool) Stage 2: guided questionnaires to assess the psychosocial situation of caregivers Stage 3: implementation of a multi-component PSP (information, counseling, listening time, training to help overcome their difficulties as a caregiver, planning for future care) Stage 4: at least one monthly phone interview Stage 5: 6 months follow up on the psychosocial characteristics of caregivers

Expected results in public health Our study will help to better define the way to take better account of the needs of the helper / helped couple, and reinforce the role of the coordinating nurse in the care pathways.

If our hypotheses can confirmed that there is a link between the caregivers needs and the social determinants of health and that the intervention has a positive impact on the caregivers burden and stress, it will suggest that this intervention not only acts favorably on social inequalities in health, but it can help reduce health care costs, as the caregiver exhaustion increases the risk of health expenditure (drug consumption, hospitalization of the patient and of the caregiver).

The Needs and Burden of Family Caregivers of Older Adults With Cancer

The Needs and Burden of Family Caregivers of Older Adults With Cancer and Their Social Determinants

Caregiver Reaction Assessment (CRA) Carers' Assessment of Managing Index (CAMI) Inventory of social support (ISSB) Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) Cognitive Inventory of Subjective Distress (CISD) Subjective well-being scale (BES)

Centre Oscar Lambret

University of Lille Nord de France

National Cancer Institute, France

University Hospital, Lille

Symptoms and General Pathology

Neoplasm Metastasis

Death

Neoplastic Processes

Patients continue with their standard treatment (typically they receive treatment in one or more hospitals departments and from their GP). In addition, they are offered a consultation in the SPC out-patient clinic (or at home if the patient cannot attend the hospital) as soon as possible and no more than one week after randomization. If possible, each patient will have at least two contacts to the SPC in the trial period.

Patients continue with their standard treatment. They are instructed to contact either their GP or their hospital department if they feel that additional treatment or care is needed.

The interventions given by the SPC centres follow the the WHO and the EAPC guidelines for palliative care. It is not possible in advance to describe the interventions more specifically as these will be adjusted to each particular patient. As part of the study the medical records of all patients in the intervention group will be reviewed with the purpose of describing the interventions given for the different symptoms and problems.

Specialised palliative care (SPC)

Mogens Groenvold, MD, PhD, DMSc

Specialised palliative care (SPC) seeks to relieve suffering and improve quality of life in patients with a life threatening disease such as advanced cancer. Many patients with advanced cancer are not in contact with SPC. Previous studies have shown that among advanced cancer patients not referred to SPC there is a significant prevalence of symptoms, problems and needs. The aims of the present study are to investigate whether patients with metastatic cancer, who report palliative needs in a screening, will benefit from being referred to SPC and to investigate the economical consequences of such a referral.

The trial is a randomised, clinical, multicenter trial including 6 Danish SPC-centres. The basic principle is that patients with palliative needs (see inclusion criteria) are identified at oncological departments and randomised to either (i) standard treatment plus SPC (intervention group) or (ii) standard treatment (control group).

Patients will be identified by the following procedure: A) Each week a research nurse reviews the medical records of consecutive patients seen in oncological out-patients clinic. B) Eligible patients are asked to fill out a questionnaire (the screening) that investigates symptoms and problems. The patients are told that their questionnaire will be evaluated and that the research nurse will contact some of the patients later on with information about a RCT. C) Those patients who report at least one palliative need in the questionnaire (see inclusion criteria) and have four additional symptoms are contacted by the research nurse who provide the patients with written and verbal information about the RCT. D) Patients who give informed consent are randomised.

Detailed statistical analysis plan:

Analysis of the primary outcome The primary outcome analysis will be a modified ITT analysis. Patients who withdrew consent after randomisation, who were randomised by mistake and did not fulfil our inclusion criteria, or who were not alive at the time of the follow-ups, will be excluded from the primary analysis. All exclusions will be shown in the CONSORT flow-chart of patient participation.

In the primary outcome analysis we will use multiple imputation for non-responders if there are more than 5% missing outcomes. In total, we will make 20 different data-sets with imputation based on a regression model using predictive-mean-matching using the MI and the MI ANALYSIS procedures in SAS. The primary outcome analysis will be made as a multiple regressions adjusted for the stratification variable if it is normally distributed.

Sensitivity analyses of the primary outcome We will make five sensitivity analyses: 1) a fully adjusted analysis including all relevant covariates, 2) a complete case analysis, 3) an analysis including a model for repeated measurement, 4) a per protocol analysis, 5) an analysis including imputations for those who died.

Analysis of secondary outcomes The analyses of the seven scales from EORTC QLQ-C30 (physical function, role function, emotional function, nausea and vomiting, pain, dyspnoea, or lack of appetite) will be made using the same principles as described for the primary outcome including the sensitivity analyses. Survival will be analysed using Kaplan-Meier plot. Patients who are alive three months after the end of data-collection will be censured on this date. A Cox regression will be made adjusted for the stratification variable. A sensitivity analysis will be made adjusting for all relevant covariates.

Exploratory outcomes and subgroup analyses For serious adverse events we report the number of hospitalisations, the number of acute hospitalisations and the number of deaths in the eight week trial period. The analyses of the other exploratory outcomes will not be dealt with in detail here. The overall principles regarding questionnaire data (the remaining scales from EORTC QLQ-C30, HADS and FAMCARE-P16) are that they will be analysed as complete case analyses.

Significance levels All tests will be two-tailed. For the primary outcome the risk of type I error is set to 5% (i.e., a significance level of P\<0.05). As we have 8 secondary outcomes, we adjust the significance levels to P\<0.01 to control the familywise (or cumulative) type I error due to multiplicity. The P-values of the exploratory outcomes will be provided, but it will be made clear that the analyses are exploratory.

Register-data, data-management and analyses Survival will be retrieved from the Danish Civil Registration System (CPR), and serious adverse events and contacts from The Danish Patient Registry (Landspatientregistret).

Data management will be done by project manager Anna Thit Johnsen. Analyses will be made by statistician Morten Aa. Petersen, who is blinded to the identity of the two intervention groups, which will be denoted Y and X. Results will be presented blinded in the same way for the investigators, and conclusions regarding the results will be drawn by the investigators and written down while the interventions are still blinded. The blinding will not be broken before all analyses of primary and secondary outcomes have been conducted.

A Trial Investigating the Effect of Specialised Palliative Care on Symptoms, Survival, Economical Factors and Satisfaction

Danish Palliative Care Trial (DanPaCT): A Randomised Clinical Multi-centre Trial Investigating the Effect of Specialised Palliative Care on Symptoms, Survival, Economical Factors and Satisfaction in Patients With Cancer Reporting Palliative Needs

The difference between the intervention and the control group in the change from baseline to the weighted mean of the 3- and 8-week follow-up (measured as AUC) for the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30) scale score that constitutes the primary need. The primary need can be a need related to the following: physical function, role function, emotional function, pain, shortness of breath, lack of appetite and nausea/vomiting.

The difference between the intervention and the control group in the change from baseline to the weighted mean of the 3- and 8-week follow-up (measured as AUC) for all the symptoms and problems measured by the EORTC QLQ-C30 and for anxiety and depression measured by the The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HAD scale)

Economical consequences measured as the expenses to health care services (treatments, hospitalisation, outpatient visits, emergency room visits, and visits with the general practitioner).

The difference between the intervention and the control group in the change from baseline to the weighted mean of the 3- and 8-week follow-up (measured as AUC) in the patients' evaluation of treatment and care provided by the health care system measured by the FAMCARE-p16 and four additional items developed for this trial

Study title	NCT ID	Conditions	Interventions	Eligibility	Organization
Investigating the Needs of Childhood Cancer Survivors: The Unreported Experience	NCT01073735	Childhood Cance...		25 Years -	St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Nurse Navigation Versus Current Care Coordination During Colorectal Cancer Trajectories	NCT03281447	Self Efficacy Continuity of C... Quality of Life Colorectal Neop... Case Management	Nurse navigatio... Current care co...	18 Years -	Odense University Hospital
The Needs and Burden of Family Caregivers of Older Adults With Cancer	NCT02285296	Oncologic Disor... Tumor	personalized su...	18 Years -	University Hospital, Lille
The Needs and Burden of Family Caregivers of Older Adults With Cancer	NCT02285296	Oncologic Disor... Tumor	personalized su...	18 Years -	University Hospital, Lille
A Trial Investigating the Effect of Specialised Palliative Care on Symptoms, Survival, Economical Factors and Satisfaction	NCT01348048	Metastatic Canc...	Specialised pal...	18 Years -	Bispebjerg Hospital
Investigating the Needs of Childhood Cancer Survivors: The Unreported Experience	NCT01073735	Childhood Cance...		25 Years -	St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

Spots Global Cancer Trial Database for needs assessment