Perceptions of Side Effects of Cancer Chemoradiotherapy

University of Southern California

Status: Completed

Conditions: Malignant Neoplasm; Side Effect

Treatments: Other: Clinical Observation

Study type: Observational

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT02978846

0S-15-17 (Other Identifier)

P30CA014089 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

NCI-2016-01260 (Registry Identifier)

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study is asking patients who are undergoing radiation therapy with or without chemotherapy on how well they evaluate their side effects on the last day of treatment. This study is not to change health outcomes of the patients in this study. Asking patients to rank side effects in order of which ones bother them the most may help researchers identify the most troubling side effects of cancer treatment.

Full description

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES:

I. To examine the perceptions of side effects and their subjective severity of patients treated with radiotherapy with and without concurrent chemotherapy at Los Angeles County (LAC) + University of Southern California (USC) Medical Center.

SECONDARY OBJECTIVES:

I. To identify the most troubling side effects of patients treated with radiotherapy with and without concurrent chemotherapy at LAC+USC Medical Center.

II. To evaluate the impact of chemotherapy combined with radiation therapy, in regards to whether or not perceptions of side effects are altered by what cancer treatment is given.

OUTLINE:

Patients are shown two groups of cards on the last day of radiation treatment. Group A lists 48 physical side effects and group B lists 27 psychosocial side effects. The cards are shuffled and patients view one card at a time and select the side effects they attribute to their current treatment. Patients rank the selected cards from each group by order of severity. The top 5 cards from each group are then shuffled together and patients rank the remaining 10 cards in order of severity.

Enrollment: 62 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Diagnosis of cancer
• Has received at least 4 consecutive weeks of definitive radiation treatment, with or without concurrent chemotherapy
• Has not received greater than 4 weeks of chemotherapy prior to radiation therapy start
• Ability to understand and the willingness to sign a written informed consent

Exclusion criteria

• Patients with either a central nervous system (CNS)-primary cancer or with brain metastases

Trial design

62 participants in 1 patient group

Observational (side effects evaluation using cards)

Description:

Patients are shown two groups of cards on the last day of radiation treatment. Group A lists 48 physical side effects and group B lists 27 psychosocial side effects. The cards are shuffled and patients view one card at a time and select the side effects they attribute to their current treatment. Patients rank the selected cards from each group by order of severity. The top 5 cards from each group are then shuffled together and patients rank the remaining 10 cards in order of severity.

Treatment:

Other: Clinical Observation