HeartPhone Cancer Survivors Trial 2019

February 9, 2026 updated by: David E Conroy, Penn State University

Digital Intervention to Promote Physical Activity and Improve Cardiovascular Health Among Cancer Survivors

This is a behavioral study that will examine changes in physical activity and vascular health in response to a digital tool (app) that will appear on participant's lock screen of their Android phone. Participants will be asked to use this app for 3 months and to wear a Fitbit device continuously throughout the study. Participants will be asked to complete questionnaires, participate in fitness testing and measures of cardiovascular health at 3 months and 6 months after baseline assessments. The hypothesis is that exposure to the app will lead to increased physical activity volume and improved microvessel function.

Study Overview

Status

Terminated

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

2

Phase

  • Phase 2
  • Phase 1

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
    • Pennsylvania
      • University Park, Pennsylvania, United States, 16802
        • The Pennsylvania State 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

18 years to 65 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Age 18-65 years
  • Diagnosis of breast cancer, leukemia, or lymphoma <15 yrs
  • Completed chemotherapy with cardiotoxic anthracycline-based agents 1+ year ago
  • English-proficiency
  • Own & use smartphone with Android operating system

Main Study and Ancillary Study Exclusion Criteria:

  • Currently receiving curative treatment for cancer
  • 90+ min/week moderate (or greater) intensity PA
  • Any medical contraindications on the Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire
  • Require an assistive device for mobility or has any other condition that may limit or prevent participation in moderate-intensity physical activity
  • Current smoker
  • Pregnant or planning to become pregnant in the next 6 mos/breastfeeding
  • Allergy to test substances
  • Allergy to latex

Ancillary Study:

  • Taking metformin
  • Current medications that could conceivably alter the cardiovascular or thermoregulatory control or responses (e.g. beta blockers, calcium channel blockers, angiotensin receptor blockers)

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

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: HeartPhone Intervention
Participants install the HeartPhone app on their smartphone. This app presents an image on a splash screen every time they activate their device. The image is randomly drawn from an image bank in the app. Repeated exposure to the image is designed to condition a more favorable automatic affective evaluation of physical activity and lead to increased physical activity.
Behavioral: HeartPhone app
Evaluative conditioning (temporally distributed micro-doses presented upon activation of smartphone screen)
Drug: Acetylcholine
Endothelium-dependent vasodilation is tested with the localized delivery of the neurotransmitter
Drug: Sodium Nitroprusside
Endothelium-independent vasodilation is tested with the localized delivery of the nitric oxide donor
Drug: L-Arginine, N2-((4-Methylphenyl)Sulfonyl)-, Methyl Ester
This nitric oxide inhibitor is continuously given during the localized delivery of the endothelium-dependent agonist acetycholine.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Installation of the Heartphone Application.
Time Frame: 3 months
Change in the total physical activity volume from baseline to 3 months as measured by the Actigraph GT3XP-BTLE (total activity counts)
3 months
Installation of the Heartphone Application.
Time Frame: 6 months
Change in the total physical activity volume from baseline to 3 and 6 month as measured by the Actigraph GT3XP-BTLE (total activity counts).
6 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Microvessel function
Time Frame: 3 month
Skin blood flow during perfusion of endothelium-dependent and independent agonists
3 month

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Penn State University

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)

April 23, 2019

Primary Completion (Actual)

December 31, 2020

Study Completion (Actual)

December 31, 2020

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

May 13, 2019

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 14, 2019

First Posted (Actual)

May 16, 2019

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

February 27, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 9, 2026

Last Verified

February 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 00011271

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

Yes

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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