Symptom Clusters in Hong Kong Chinese Children With Blood Cancer

Symptom Clusters in Hong Kong Chinese Children With Blood Cancer:: A Longitudinal Study

Pediatric blood cancer is the most common childhood malignancy. Despite its survival has been substantially improved, children still have to pay a high price for numerous distressing symptoms resulted from chemotherapy. Previous studies related to symptom experiences mainly focus on individual symptoms, rather than on multiple symptoms. Understanding these distressing symptoms may help healthcare professionals to develop appropriate and effective interventions with the aims of alleviating symptom severity and thus promoting the child's psychosocial well-being and quality of life.

Study Overview

• Status: Recruiting
• Conditions: Child
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Questionnaire

Detailed Description

A longitudinal study design will be conducted. A sample of 120 patients age 5-17years, diagnosed with blood cancer but not yet receive any chemotherapy and able to communicate with Cantonese and read Chinese will be recruited in the pediatric oncology ward of Hong Kong Children's Hospital.

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Anticipated): 120

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Ka Wai Lam, PhD; Phone Number: 27666420; Email: kwkatlam@polyu.edu.hk

Study Locations

• Hong Kong
  • Hong Kong,China
    • Hong Kong, Hong Kong,China, Hong Kong, 0000
      • Recruiting
      • Ka Yan Ho

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 5 years to 17 years (Child)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

We will recruit pediatric patients with blood cancer in the Hong Kong Children's Hospital

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• aged 5 - 17 years old
• diagnosed with blood cancer but not yet receive any chemotherapy
• able to communicate with Cantonese and read Chinese

Exclusion Criteria:

• who are scheduled to have concurrent cancer treatment
• with recurrent malignancy
• medical condition, or cognitive and learning problems in their medical records

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Number of groups / cohorts

1

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort	Intervention / Treatment
Questionnaire; This study aims to examine the cancer patient's symptom clusters and their changes over chemotherapy among pediatric patients with blood cancer in Hong Kong	Other: Questionnaire; Participants will complete a set of validated questionnaires (TRSC-C and demographic sheet) before chemotherapy. They also have to complete the same questionnaires (TRSC-C) again within 1 week after the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th , 5th and 6th courses of chemotherapy via telephone interview by our research assistants.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
The therapy-related symptom checklist for children (TRSC-C)	For measuring the occurrence and severity of symptoms experienced by patients aged 5-17 when they undergo cancer treatment.	Before chemotherapy
The therapy-related symptom checklist for children (TRSC-C) at 1-week	For measuring the occurrence and severity of symptoms experienced by patients aged 5-17 when they undergo cancer treatment.	At 1-week follow-up
The therapy-related symptom checklist for children (TRSC-C) at 1-month	For measuring the occurrence and severity of symptoms experienced by patients aged 5-17 when they undergo cancer treatment.	At 1-month follow-up
The therapy-related symptom checklist for children (TRSC-C) at 3-month	For measuring the occurrence and severity of symptoms experienced by patients aged 5-17 when they undergo cancer treatment.	At 3-month follow-up
The therapy-related symptom checklist for children (TRSC-C) at 6-month	For measuring the occurrence and severity of symptoms experienced by patients aged 5-17 when they undergo cancer treatment.	At 6-month follow-up
Demographic sheet	collect the background information of our subjects, including their age, gender, educational attainment, parents' marital status and religious belief	At baseline

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Ka Yan Ho, phd, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): September 1, 2021
• Primary Completion (Anticipated): September 1, 2024
• Study Completion (Anticipated): September 1, 2024

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: May 3, 2021
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 11, 2021
• First Posted (Actual): May 17, 2021

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): April 19, 2022
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 12, 2022
• Last Verified: April 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: chemotherapy; blood cancer
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Pathologic Processes; Neoplasms; Neoplasms by Site; Disease; Hematologic Diseases; Syndrome; Hematologic Neoplasms
• Other Study ID Numbers: SC_Blood_cancer

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: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No