Internet Use Among Women With Recurrent Metastatic Breast Cancer

January 27, 2011 updated by: University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey

Internet Use Among Women With Recurrent Breast Cancer

RATIONALE: Gathering information about patients with breast cancer over time may help doctors learn more about a patient's use of the internet to find information about treatment, symptom management, and emotional support.

PURPOSE: This clinical trial is studying internet use among women with recurrent metastatic breast cancer.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

OBJECTIVES:

  • To document the proportion of women who use the internet to access treatment and symptom management information and to seek emotional support after diagnosis of metastatic recurrent breast cancer.
  • To evaluate the association of treatment stage and effectiveness with internet use.
  • To evaluate the association of individual differences in patients' demographics, beliefs, emotional functioning, and social and professional support with internet use.
  • To evaluate the association of patients' use of the internet to seek resources with their beliefs, emotional functioning, and relationship functioning.

OUTLINE: Patients undergo assessments consisting of paper and pencil questionnaires at four time points. The timing of these assessments is linked to the patient's treatment course and her presumed need to access internet resources for information on cancer, treatment, symptom management, and emotional support. Patients who discontinue regular care at the Cancer Institute of New Jersey site during the course of the study may complete study assessments through phone interviews conducted by a member of the study team.

Patients undergo a baseline survey prior to deciding on a treatment course for their newly progressive disease. Patients complete the first part of the survey to provide information on demographics, beliefs about cancer, mood states, somatic symptoms, and available resources for cancer information and emotional support. Patients complete the second part of the survey, if they have used the internet previously to obtain information and resources about cancer or if they have received cancer information that someone else located on the internet for them, which inquires about patients' internet use, any internet resources they have received from family members, friends, or other people they know, and their own evaluation of these internet resources. Patients undergo the second study assessment after completion of the first course of treatment and prior to initiating course 2 (i.e., 3 to 4 weeks after initiating treatment). The third study assessment occurs within the first 2 weeks after the medical oncologist's first evaluation of treatment response (i.e., 6-9 weeks after initiating treatment). The fourth assessment occurs after the medical oncologist's second evaluation of the patient's response to treatment, following tumor re-staging.

Patients complete several questionnaires during these assessments to provide information about personal characteristics (demographics, physical and psychological well-being, beliefs about cancer and treatment, optimism), social and healthcare networks (perceived social support, social network composition, beliefs about treatment team), and outcomes (use of non-internet cancer information, use of the internet for cancer resources, use of interactive technologies, communication with treatment team and family, evaluation of internet resources).

The following information is extracted from the patients' medical record: stage and node status at primary diagnosis, previous oncology surgeries, previous adjuvant treatments, current menopausal status, treatment at time of recurrence, disease free interval, site(s) of metastasis, and response to current treatment.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

70

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • New Jersey
      • New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States, 08903
        • Cancer Institute of New Jersey at UMDNJ - Robert Wood Johnson Medical School

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 75 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

Female

Description

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

  • Diagnosis of recurrent breast cancer meeting either of the following criteria:

    • Newly diagnosed metastatic disease

    • Recently diagnosed as progressive disease after stable metastatic disease for at least 6 months

      • Must have received the same treatment for metastatic breast cancer for at least 3 months

        • Have received no treatment for progressive disease OR have begun treatment for progressive disease within the past month
  • Patient at the Cancer Institute of New Jersey in New Brunswick or Hamilton, New Jersey
  • Hormone receptor status not specified

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

  • Menopausal status not specified
  • Able to speak and write English
  • Free of diseases and cognitive impairments that would interfere with comprehension of the survey instruments or ability to provide informed consent

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

  • See Disease Characteristics

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Health Services Research

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Use of non-internet cancer information
Use of the internet for cancer resources
Use of interactive technologies
Communication with treatment team and family members
Evaluation of internet resources
Changes in internet use over the course of treatment
Cross-sectional associations between patients' internet use and their individual, social, and professional network characteristics
Internet use and changes in patients' beliefs and emotional functioning

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey

Collaborators

National Cancer Institute (NCI)

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

November 1, 2001

Primary Completion (Actual)

February 1, 2010

Study Completion (Actual)

January 1, 2011

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

October 8, 2008

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

October 8, 2008

First Posted (Estimate)

October 9, 2008

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

January 31, 2011

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 27, 2011

Last Verified

January 1, 2011

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • CDR0000592835
  • P30CA072720 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)
  • CINJ-000102
  • CINJ-IRB-3879

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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