Scalable TELeheaLth Cancer CARe: The STELLAR Program to Treat Cancer Risk Behaviors

Northwestern University

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Physical Inactivity; Obesity; Smoking Cessation

Treatments: Behavioral: multiple behavior change therapy

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05687604

P50CA271353

Details and patient eligibility

About

The goal of this clinical trial is to improve cancer patient's health, survival, and quality of life by dispelling risk behaviors for Northwestern Memorial Health Care (NMHC) patients who are cancer survivors.

The main question[s] STELLAR aims to answer are:

• How best to combine three behavior interventions (physical activity promotion, smoking cessation, obesity treatment) into one treatment.
• Evaluate the reach of the program. We will look at the number, proportion, and representativeness of participants in terms of disease characteristics, socioeconomic status, telehealth readiness, and race/ethnicity.
• Evaluate the effects of the STELLAR program relative to enhanced usual care (information provision) on cancer risk behaviors, patient care access, care quality, and communication.

Participants will be provided goals related to their physical activity, smoking, and/or weight loss and asked to track their health behaviors via an app, excel file, or on paper. At baseline, 3 months, 6 months and 9 months into the study, participants will provide survey responses and physical measurements like height and weight. Additionally, those in the Facilitated group will complete 12 telehealth sessions with study staff to discuss progress towards their study goals.

Researchers will compare the Facilitated group to the Self Guided group to see if the Facilitated intervention group is able to reach more participants that enhances care only.

Full description

The goal of this clinical trial is to decrease adverse outcomes and improve cancer patient's health, survival, and quality of life by dispelling risk behaviors for Northwestern Memorial Health Care (NMHC) patients.

The main question[s] STELLAR aims to answer are:

• How best to combine three existing effective cancer risk behavior interventions (physical activity promotion, smoking cessation, obesity treatment) into one treatment program within the existing NMHC environment.
• Evaluate the reach of the FACILITATED program. We will look at the number, proportion, and representativeness of individuals who are willing to participate in terms of disease characteristics, socioeconomic status, telehealth readiness, and race/ethnicity.
• Evaluate the effects of the FACILITATED program relative to enhanced usual care (information provision) on cancer risk behaviors, patient care access, care quality, healthcare utilization, patient-provider communication, cost and health outcomes (symptoms and quality of life).

Participants will be recruited through several channels (MyNM, direct outreach from research staff, EDW). Interested patients will then be randomly assigned to the STELLAR program arm, or Enhanced Usual Care. Participants in the STELLAR program will be enrolled for a year into the program. Participants will be provided goals related to their physical activity, smoking, and/or weight loss and asked to track their health behaviors via an app, excel file, or on paper. At baseline, 3 months, 6 months and 9 months into the study, participants will provide survey responses and physical measurements like height and weight. Additionally, those in the FACILITATED group will complete 12 telehealth sessions with study staff to discuss progress towards their study goals.

Researchers will compare the FACILITATED intervention group to the SELF GUIDED group to see if the FACILITATED intervention group is able to reach more participants that Self Guided only.

Enrollment: 1,500 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Northwestern Medicine patient
• Over 18 years old
• Meet at least 1 of the following 3 criteria:
• Engage in <150 min/week of physical activity
• BMI of ≥25
• Report that they currently smoke or smoked within the last year
• Diagnosed with any cancer (except non-melanoma skin)
• Ability to attend telehealth visits either via landline, cell phone, smartphone, tablet, laptop, or desktop computer
• 3 months post curative intent treatment if BMI of ≥25 or engage in <150 min/week of physical activity
• Post curative intent treatment if they currently smoke or smoked within the last year

Exclusion criteria

• Currently in another dietary, weight loss, smoking cessation (including cessation pharmacotherapy), or physical activity treatment/intervention.
• Limited level of oral and written English or Spanish
• Cognitively impaired adults
• Prisoners
• Participants will be excluded from the physical activity and weight loss interventions (but not the smoking cessation component) for:
• Absolute contraindications to exercise (i.e., acute myocardial infarction, complete heart block, acute congestive heart failure, unstable angina, uncontrolled hypertension), metastatic disease or planned elective surgery
• Pregnant or plans to become pregnant.
• Individuals engaging in the physical activity or weight loss interventions must pass pre- physical activity participation screening or obtain medical clearance

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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1,500 participants in 2 patient groups

FACILITATED Program

Active Comparator group

Description:

STELLAR arm participants will receive goals related to their physical activity, smoking, and/or obesity, and will be asked to meet those goals weekly/daily. Participants will also be asked to record their weight, activity, and/or cigarette smoking daily, and will complete 12 telehealth sessions with study staff across the 9 months of the study. Will have physical measures taken or extracted from the medical record at baseline, 3 months, 6 months, and 9 months.

Treatment:

Behavioral: multiple behavior change therapy

SELF GUIDED Program

No Intervention group

Description:

Patients in the EUC group will receive informational packets about their risk behaviors - obesity, physical inactivity, and/or smoking. Will have physical measures taken or extracted from the medical record at baseline, 3 months, 6 months, and 9 months