A Music Therapy Study for Blood Cancer Survivors With Cognitive Difficulties

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK)

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Blood Cancer; Lymphoma; Myeloma; Leukemia

Treatments: Other: Music Therapy/MT; Other: Therapist-Attention Music Education/TAME Control

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT07052916

25-119

Details and patient eligibility

About

Research has shown that music-based activities may help improve brain functions, such as attention, memory, and executive function. Because of this past research, the researchers are doing this study to find out whether telehealth music therapy is a practical treatment for cognitive difficulties in blood cancer survivors. The researchers will also study whether music therapy and music education help improve cognitive function and other common symptoms such as anxiety, depression, and/or tiredness.

Enrollment: 60 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• English-proficient, aged 18 or older
• Diagnosis of lymphoma, leukemia, or myeloma
• Stable oncologic disease or no evidence of disease as indicated in the medical chart or by the oncology team
• Score of <54 on the FACT-Cog PCI subscale
• Minimum life expectancy of one year as per clinician assessment
• Patient should be able to understand and complete all study assessments on their own.
• Eligible patient should be able to understand informed consent and provide signed informed consent in English.

Exclusion criteria

• Less than 3 months since completion of surgery, radiation, induction chemotherapy (for newly diagnosed or relapsed disease), transplantation, or immunotherapy (e.g., CAR T-Cell, bispecific antibodies)

  • If there is a defined treatment period, the patient must be at least 3 months from treatment completion
  • If the patient is on continuous therapy, patient must have completed at least 6 months of the therapy
  • Maintenance therapies are allowed

• Received music therapy (MT) in the past year

• Current music training, >6 months of music training in the past 10 years, or plan to initiate music training during the study

• No access to an internet-connected device

• Active suicidal ideation, bipolar, schizophrenia, or substance abuse

• BOMC score ≥10 (indicative of dementia)

• Uncorrectable visual, auditory, or motor impairments

• Initiation or altered dose of sedative, stimulant, or anti-cholinergic medications in the past month or plan to initiate these medications during the study, as these are known to impact cognitive function

• Initiation of any other interventions for CRCD (e.g., cognitive rehabilitation) in the past month or plan to initiate these interventions during the study, as these are known to impact cognitive function

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Non-Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

---

60 participants in 3 patient groups

Music Therapy/MT

Experimental group

Description:

Participants will receive 12, weekly 60-minute MT sessions (+/- 1 week) with homework in-between sessions to reinforce in-session concepts, practice musical skills, and serve as transitions to subsequent sessions

Treatment:

Other: Music Therapy/MT

Therapist Attention-Music Education/TAME control

Active Comparator group

Description:

Patients will receive 12, weekly 60-minute Therapist Attention-Music Education/TAME sessions (+/- 1 week) with homework in-between sessions to reinforce in-session concepts and serve as transitions to subsequent sessions. The TAME control group will involve board-certified music therapists guiding participants through music listening exercises.

Treatment:

Other: Therapist-Attention Music Education/TAME Control

Wait-List Control/WLC

No Intervention group

Description:

The Wait-List Control/WLC group will receive usual care from healthcare providers and complete the same assessments as the other groups. The WLC will have the option of receiving either 12 sessions of MT or 12 sessions of TAME intervention when the study concludes after the 24-week waiting period. The WLC participants will choose which intervention (MT or TAME) they wish to receive.