Behaviors and Mental Disorders

All Conditions

Quality of Life

patients who specify their preference for either acupuncture or touch therapy

with no preference, to be randomly allocated to either the acupuncture or touch-therapy subgroup

Acupuncture points will be selected on an individualized and symptom-directed basis, with the incorporation of points shown in clinical research to be effective for specific symptoms

Acupuncture

Touch therapies are to include Reflexology, Shiatsu and Therapeutic Touch

Touch Therapies

Noah Samuels, M.D.

Nathan Cherny, M.D.

The use of complementary and integrative medicine (CIM) among oncology patients is widespread, with a large body of research-based evidence supporting the ability of these therapies to alleviate symptoms related to cancer and its treatment. Organizations such as the American Society for Clinical Oncology and the European Society for Medical Oncology have included CIM modalities in their treatment guidelines, and many of today's leading cancer centers include CIM in their supportive care service. The proposed study will prospectively examine the impact of a CIM treatment program on the symptom burden, quality of life and function of patients undergoing active oncology treatment.

A total of 750 patients will undergo an integrative oncologist (IP) consultation followed by a series of 8 CIM treatments consisting of either acupuncture or touch-related therapies (reflexology, Shiatsu, Tuina, etc.) with the goal of relieving their symptoms. Patients will be allocated to one of the two study treatment arms: the "Patient-Preference Arm", for patients who specify their preference for either acupuncture or touch therapy; and the "Randomized Treatment Arm", for those with no preference, to be randomly allocated to either the acupuncture or touch-therapy subgroup. Patients will be asked to complete the following study questionnaires before and after the treatment regimen: the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30); the Edmonton Symptom Assessment System (ESAS); and the Measure Yourself Concerns and Wellbeing (MYCAW) tool. The primary study outcome will be the change in EORTC Global Health-Status / Quality of Life scores, from pre- to post-treatment. Secondary study outcomes will include EORTC QLQ-C30 functional and symptom scales, single items assessing additional symptoms commonly reported by cancer patients, and perceived financial impact of the disease; ESAS severity scores for 10 quality-of life related items; and MYCAW severity scores for the 2 most significant symptoms, as well as post-treatment narratives. Other secondary outcomes to be assessed include the safety of the study treatments (adverse effects); adherence to conventional treatment regimen; and narratives from the patient's informal caregiver (spouse, parent/child, sibling, friend, etc.).

Patient-preference, pragmatic methodology

Integrative Oncology for Patient Symptoms

Examining the Impact of an Integrative Oncology Program on Patient Symptoms and Quality of Life: a Prospective Pragmatic Registry Protocol Study

Change from baseline to the end of the 8-week integrative treatment program

Change from baseline and 8-week assessment to 16 week follow-up

Change in severity scores for 10 quality-of life related items

Change in severity scores for the 2 most significant symptoms, as well as post-treatment narratives

Any reported adverse events taking place during the study period which are considered to have possibly/probably resulted from the CIM intervention

Adherence to oncology treatment to be measured using the Relative Dose Intensity (RDI) calculation

Narratives from the patient's informal caregiver (spouse, parent/child, sibling, friend, etc.).

Shaare Zedek Medical Center

Director, Center for Integrative Complementary Medicine

Neoplasms

Blood and Lymph Conditions

Immune System Diseases

Rare Diseases

Lymphoma

Neoplasms by Histologic Type

Lymphoproliferative Disorders

Lymphatic Diseases

Immunoproliferative Disorders

Lymphosarcoma

All patients will be followed up by a haemato-oncologist. The frequency and type of visits and exams will be determined by National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines, patients' symptoms and physician's clinical judgement. Patients recruited to the intervention arm will receive, on top of the defined conventional medicine follow-up, integrative oncology intervention including emotional treatments (counseling, spiritual guidance), complementary medicine (acupuncture, herbal supplements, mind-body, touch and/or movement therapies) or both. The type and frequency of these interventions will be defined by the integrative team in coordination with the patient, based on evidence-based data, patient's symptoms, and preferences. The duration of the intervention will be 6 months from recruitment.

All patients will be followed up by a haemato-oncologist. The frequency and type of visits and exams will be determined by NCCN guidelines, patients' symptoms and physician's clinical judgement.

The frequency of acupuncture will be defined by the integrative team in coordination with the patient, based on evidence-based data, patient's symptoms, and preferences. The duration of the intervention will be 6 months from recruitment.

The frequency of mind-body therapy (hypnosis, guided imagery) will be defined by the integrative team in coordination with the patient, based on evidence-based data, patient's symptoms, and preferences. The duration of the intervention will be 6 months from recruitment.

Mind-body therapy

The frequency of touch therapy (shiatsu, reflexology) will be defined by the integrative team in coordination with the patient, based on evidence-based data, patient's symptoms, and preferences. The duration of the intervention will be 6 months from recruitment.

Touch therapy

The frequency of movement therapy (Tai-Chi, Qi-Qong) will be defined by the integrative team in coordination with the patient, based on evidence-based data, patient's symptoms, and preferences. The duration of the intervention will be 6 months from recruitment.

Movement therapy

The choice of herbal supplement will be defined by the integrative team in coordination with the patient, based on evidence-based data, patient's symptoms, and preferences. The duration of the intervention will be 6 months from recruitment.

Herbal supplements

The frequency of emotional treatments (counseling, spiritual guidance) will be defined by the integrative team in coordination with the patient, based on evidence-based data, patient's symptoms, and preferences. The duration of the intervention will be 6 months from recruitment.

Emotional treatment

Dana Weizer

Ilana Levy Yurkovski, MD

Ohad Cohen Naznin

Lymphoma is a cancer of the lymph nodes. While some are "silent" and only require follow-up, in cases of aggressive lymphoma, treatment is necessary, and usually includes biological drugs, chemotherapy or both. These drugs often cause significant damage to quality-of-life and various symptoms that do not always go away. Although the treatments are often limited in time and with recovery rates over 60%, most patients are left with a significantly impaired quality-of-life and difficulty in returning to their previous life. Many studies, most of which were conducted in breast cancer survivors, show the place of complementary medicine in the recovery process, both in terms of symptom relief and in improving quality-of-life. Few studies have examined the place of complementary and integrative medicine in lymphoma survivors. The purpose of the present study is to examine the effect of integrative treatments (a combination of conventional and complementary medicine) on quality-of-life of lymphoma survivors, on specific symptoms caused by the disease and its treatment, on economic and social aspects, as well as on the course of the disease. At the hematological unit of Bnai Zion Medical Center, Haifa, Israel, patients with lymphoma who have received chemotherapy, biological treatment or both, and have been defined as recovering by the treating hematologist, will be offered a choice of different types of complementary medicine (acupuncture, herbal medicine, mind-body, movement and touch therapies), emotional treatment (conversations with social worker, spiritual guidance), or both, in addition to the medical and nursing care offered to all survivors. Patients who prefer not to come to the clinic for these treatments will be assigned to the control group and will fill out questionnaires only. The duration of the treatments will be six months and follow-up for another two years. The type of treatments the patient will receive will be chosen in coordination between the integrative team and the patient and according to the symptoms. An assessment will be made on the effect of these treatments on quality-of-life of lymphoma survivors (based on questionnaires), including physical, psycho-spiritual and economic aspects, as well as on the course of the disease.

Background: Lymphoma is a malignant disease of the lymph nodes. While some of the lymphomas are indolent and require only follow-up, in cases of aggressive lymphoma or indolent lymphoma with a high burden of disease, treatment is necessary and usually includes biological drugs, chemotherapy or both. These drugs often cause significant damage to quality-of-life, including various symptoms such as fatigue, gastrointestinal symptoms, neuropathy, as well as psycho-emotional and financial damage surrounding the cessation of work during the treatments. Although the treatments are often limited in time and with recovery rates above 60% in the case of aggressive lymphoma, most patients are left with a significant impairment in the quality-of-life and difficulty in returning to the life before the disease. Survivor clinics are usually located outside the oncology clinics and are designed to help cancer patients return to life after they have recovered from the disease. Many studies, mostly in breast cancer survivors, show the place of complementary medicine in the recovery process, both in terms of relieving symptoms and improving quality-of-life. Few studies have examined the place of complementary medicine in survivor clinics in haemato-oncological patients after intensive and time-limited treatments. In addition, integrative oncology that incorporates both conventional and complementary medicine, is a developing discipline that has been shown to be effective in the relief of many cancer-related symptoms such as chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy, which is common in lymphoma survivors, and other outcomes such as quality-of-life, or even survival.

Hypothesis: In the present study, we assumed that an integrative oncology approach was effective for improving different outcomes of lymphoma survivors including quality-of-life, specific symptoms caused by the disease and its treatment, economic and social aspects, as well as the course of the disease.

Study plan: At the Hematology Unit at Bnai Zion Hospital, adult lymphoma survivors that received chemotherapy, biologic therapy or both during active lymphoma treatment, and are willing to participate in the study, will be recruited up to one year after remission. After completing questionnaires and an initial assessment by the integrative team, the patients will be divided by preference between the control group who will receive the mandatory basic treatment for follow-up after the disease (medical and nursing); and the intervention group who will come to the clinic and receive, in addition to the above, emotional treatments (counseling, spiritual guidance), complementary medicine (acupuncture, herbal supplements, mind-body, touch and/or movement therapies) or both. The type and frequency of complementary therapy will be chosen by the integrative team in coordination with the patient, based on patient's symptoms and preferences. The duration of the intervention will be 6 months from recruitment. During follow-up, the patients will fill-out a MYCAW questionnaire to assess symptoms in each treatment (or once a month in the control group) and a safety assessment will be performed using the validated Acupuncture-Adverse Events (Acup-AE) questionnaire for acupuncture or targeted questioning for other treatments. Also, the patients will fill-out quality-of-life questionnaires once a month and economic and cognitive evaluation questionnaires once every 3 months. The haemato-oncologist will complete an assessment of the disease state once every 3 months. In addition, 3 months after the end of the treatments, the patients will fill-out all the same questionnaires for follow-up. The haemato-oncologist will perform a medical follow-up on the condition of the disease once every 3 months for two years from the end of the treatments at the survivor clinic.

The primary outcome is the effect of an integrative approach on quality-of-life of lymphoma survivors. Secondary outcomes include the effect of such approach on specific symptoms caused by the disease and its treatment, economic and social aspects, as well as on the course of the disease.

Preference-based comparative effectiveness clinical trial

Integrative Medicine in Lymphoma Survivors

Effectiveness of Integrative Medicine Treatments in Lymphoma Survivors

EQ-5D scale. The descriptive system comprises five dimensions: mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain/discomfort and anxiety/depression. Each dimension has 5 levels: no problems, slight problems, moderate problems, severe problems and extreme problems. The patient indicates health state by ticking the box next to the most appropriate statement in each of the five dimensions. This decision results in a 1-digit number that expresses the level selected for that dimension. The digits for the five dimensions can be combined into a 5-digit number that describes the patient's health state. The EQ visual analogue scale (VAS) records the patient's self-rated health on a vertical visual analogue scale, where the endpoints are labelled 'The best health you can imagine' and 'The worst health you can imagine'. The VAS can be used as a quantitative measure of health outcome that reflect the patient's own judgement.

Measure Yourself Concerns and Wellbeing (MYCAW) questionnaire: requires participants to nominate one or two concerns and, using a seven-point scale from 0 (worse outcome) to 6 (best outcome), to score these concerns and their general feeling of wellbeing

Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy - cognitive (FACT-cog) questionnaire: evaluates perceived cognitive functioning and their impact on quality of life. This is a self-reported 37-item questionnaire that consists of four subscales: Perceived Cognitive Impairment (CogPCI) (20 items), Perceived Cognitive Ability (CogPCA) (9 items), Comments from Others on Cognitive Function (Cog-Oth) (4 items), and Impact on Quality of Life (Cog-QoL) (4 items). All items are rated for the previous week, including the day of administration, on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 0 "Never" or "Not at all" to 4 "Several times a day" or "Very much". The total CogPCI subscale ranges from 0 to 72, the CogPCA ranges between 0 and 28, and each of the Cog-QoL and Cog-Oth ranges between 0 and 16. The total score for the FACT-Cog is computed by summing all the item scores and ranges from 0 to 148 points, with a higher score indicative of better perceived cognitive functioning.

Perceived Personal Control (PPC) scale: a 4-questions-scale, with each question evaluating in a 0-4 scale the perception of disease control (0: worse control to 4: best control)

Questionnaire on the measurement, valuation, and estimation of costs adapted from a validated questionnaire on informal care

A checklist with acupuncture adverse events based on the Acupuncture-Adverse Events (AcupAE) questionnaire will be used to evaluate acupuncture-associated safety events after each treatment. For non-acupuncture complementary medicine therapies, the practitioner will directly question and evaluate the patient after each intervention for possible safety events. Specifically for dietary and herbal supplements, adverse events and interactions will be evaluated at each visit, and the Naranjo and adapted Drug Interaction Probability Scales (DIPS) will be used to assess the causality of such events with the specific dietary supplements.

Based on clinical evaluation of the physician

Time from screening to the occurrence of disease progression or death, based on clinical evaluation

Time from screening to death, based on clinical evaluation

Study title	NCT ID	Conditions	Interventions	Eligibility	Organization
Integrative Oncology for Patient Symptoms	NCT04940780	Oncologic Compl... Symptoms and Si...	Acupuncture Touch Therapies	18 Years -	Shaare Zedek Medical Center
Integrative Oncology for Patient Symptoms	NCT04940780	Oncologic Compl... Symptoms and Si...	Acupuncture Touch Therapies	18 Years -	Shaare Zedek Medical Center
Integrative Medicine in Lymphoma Survivors	NCT05982223	Lymphoma	Acupuncture Mind-body thera... Touch therapy Movement therap... Herbal suppleme... Emotional treat...	18 Years -	Bnai Zion Medical Center

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