Take the Fight in Supporting and Empowering Patients With Cancer

June 29, 2018 updated by: Wake Forest University Health Sciences

A Pilot Study of 'Take the Fight' as Community-Based Participatory Research

This pilot clinical trial studies Take the Fight in supporting and empowering patients with cancer through their treatment process. Patients with cancer are faced with many obstacles created by the current state of the healthcare system. The purpose of Take the Fight is to train college students, also called patients' navigators or strategists, to assist and support patients to navigate into the healthcare system and receive the care they need. The strategists are matched with patients and attend/coordinate most patients' medical appointments. The strategists also advance communications between the patient and the medical staff to facilitate both the exchange of medical information as well as increase the patient's compliance with treatment. Take the Fight may improve the health and quality of life outcomes of cancer patients during critical treatment periods by increasing treatment compliance, eliminating barriers to better care, and increasing clinical trial participation.

Study Overview

Detailed Description

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES:

I. Delineate the benefits of and limitations to having Take the Fight strategists, performing as lay-navigators, as perceived by both the patients and the students.

SECONDARY OBJECTIVES:

I. Investigate changes in self-reported outcomes for patients and the Take the Fight strategists.

OUTLINE:

Patients receive patient navigation via strategists from the Take the Fight for 8 weeks. Patients also complete interviews regarding perceived physical, logistical, psychosocial, and informational challenges experienced prior to meeting with strategists/navigators and how challenges were addressed by navigator or others, perceived benefits or limitations of navigator assistance. Strategists also complete interviews regarding their perceptions on how patients benefited from participation, challenges patients experienced that were directly or indirectly related to their cancer diagnosis and treatment, how these concerns were addressed, barriers to addressing these concerns, and patient health literacy.

After completion of study, patients and strategists are followed up for 8-10 weeks.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

54

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

    • North Carolina
      • Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States, 27157
        • Comprehensive Cancer Center of Wake Forest University

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

19 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • PATIENTS ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA
  • Have histologically confirmed cancer
  • Karnofsky performance scale (KPS) score of >= 60
  • The ability to understand and be willing to sign an informed consent document
  • Willing to undergo a form of cancer therapy and subsequent follow-up care
  • STRATEGISTS INCLUSION CRITERIA
  • Age >= 18 years
  • Wake Forest University student
  • Have volunteered as a student strategist at Comprehensive Cancer Center of Wake Forest University (CCCWFU); all strategists are required to have gone through Take the Fight (TTF) training prior to their volunteer work

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: Supportive Care
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Supportive care (Take the Fight)
Patients receive patient navigation via strategists from the Take the Fight for 8 weeks. Patients also complete interviews regarding perceived physical, logistical, psychosocial, and informational challenges experienced prior to meeting with strategists/navigators and how challenges were addressed by navigator or others, perceived benefits or limitations of navigator assistance. Strategists also complete interviews regarding their perceptions on how patients benefited from participation, challenges patients experienced that were directly or indirectly related to their cancer diagnosis and treatment, how these concerns were addressed, barriers to addressing these concerns, and patient health literacy.
Ancillary studies
Other Names:
  • Quality of Life Assessment
Complete interviews
Receive patient navigation via the Take the Fight strategists
Other Names:
  • Supportive Therapy
  • Symptom Management
  • Therapy, Supportive

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in patients self-reported outcomes using European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality of Life-Cancer 30 (QLQ-C30) questionnaire
Time Frame: Baseline to up to 18 weeks
Descriptive statistics will be measured, including frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations of patient self-report measures will be calculated. Ninety-five percent confidence intervals will also be calculated for the outcomes measures at each time point.
Baseline to up to 18 weeks
Change in strategists self-reported outcomes using Caregiver Quality of Life Index-Cancer (CQOLC, McMillian, 1996) scale
Time Frame: Baseline to up to 10 weeks
Baseline to up to 10 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Stefan Grant, Wake Forest University Health Sciences

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 (Actual)

February 1, 2016

Primary Completion (Actual)

April 1, 2016

Study Completion (Actual)

April 1, 2016

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

March 28, 2016

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 31, 2016

First Posted (Estimate)

April 6, 2016

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

July 3, 2018

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 29, 2018

Last Verified

June 1, 2018

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • IRB00037093
  • P30CA012197 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)
  • NCI-2016-00384 (Registry Identifier: CTRP (Clinical Trial Reporting Program))
  • CCCWFU 99216 (Other Identifier: Comprehensive Cancer Center of Wake Forest University)

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

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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