Improving Communication for Cancer Treatment: Addressing Concerns of Older Cancer Patients and Caregivers

April 13, 2026 updated by: M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
To improve patient-centered outcomes for older patients with cancer considering or receiving chemotherapy and their caregivers. To do this, the project team will (a) establish the effectiveness of GA on communication about age-related concerns, patient and caregiver satisfaction with communication about age-related concerns, quality of life, and patient-reported side effects of chemotherapy; (b) evaluate the success of the implementation strategies on the adoption, reach, and fidelity of implementing the GA in community oncology practices; and (c) identify the resources needed to implement GA and the GA-guided recommendations in community oncology practices for older patients considering or receiving chemotherapy.

Study Overview

Status

Active, not recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Objectives:

  • Establish the effectiveness of GA on patient and caregiver satisfaction and communication about age-related concerns for older patients receiving chemotherapy in community oncology practices.
  • Evaluate the success of our implementation strategies on the reach, adoption, and fidelity of implementing the GA in community oncology practices.
  • Identify the resources needed to implement GA and the GA-guided recommendations in community oncology practices for older patients receiving chemotherapy.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

479

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
    • Texas
      • Houston, Texas, United States, 77030
        • MD Anderson Cancer Center

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 and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Practice Staff Participants

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Aged 18 years or older
  • A practicing clinician (e.g., oncologist, nurse practitioners, physician assistant, advanced practice nurse, registered nurse, medical assistant) or other practice staff (e.g., administrators and IT)
  • Fluent in English (reading and speaking)
  • Have access to computer, laptop, tablet, or smart phone

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Have plans to leave the practice in six months (e.g., retiring or changing organizations)
  • Unable to provide consent

Patient Participants

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Aged 65 and older
  • Considering a new chemotherapy plan

Exclusion Criteria:

• Have been diagnosed with a health condition that precludes their ability to participate in informed consent or in the intervention (e.g., dementia which limits decision-making capacity).

Care Partner/Caregiver Participants (Care partners can be any partner, spouse, family member, and/or friend that has been identified by the patient and/or clinical team that supports the patient through treatment.)

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Aged 18 years and older
  • Fluent in English (reading and speaking)
  • Have access to computer, laptop, tablet, or smart phone

Exclusion Criteria:

• Unable to provide consent

Inclusion of Special Populations:

Employees. The rationale for including employees is to gain a better understanding of how we can improve cancer care for older patients with cancer receiving chemotherapy. It is possible that some employees may be pregnant women or military personnel. We intend to include these individuals as long as they meet the inclusion and exclusion criteria because this is a clinical improvement project to promote the implementation of the GA in routine clinical practice and should have external validity. These individuals would not be excluded in other clinical improvement projects outside of a research study.

Other special populations. This study will not include other special subject populations (students, Non-English-Speaking Populations, Minors, Human Fetuses; Neonates (infants under 30 days old), prisoners/detainees (wards)) because the purpose of the study is to understand the implementation of the GA in clinical oncology practices and its impact on patients 65+ with cancer and their care partners satisfaction with care, communication about their care, quality of life, and patient (65+) reported toxicities.

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

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Other: Geriatric Assessment (GA)
Clinical staff undergo training in GA and are provided with facilitation and support for one year as they implement GA among older adult patients (65+) considering chemotherapy and their care partners/caregivers.
Behavioral: Geriatric Assessment
Clinical staff receive (a) training in GA and workflow management strategies (<60 minutes) at baseline, (b) monthly facilitation and technical support calls (15-30 minutes) for 12 months, and (c) a group-based quarterly call for 12 months. For 12 months, clinical staff implement GA strategies during visits with older adult (65+) patients planning to receive new chemotherapy regimen and their care partners/caregivers.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Reach of Geriatric Assessment (GA) implementation in routine medical practice
Time Frame: monthly over 12 months of implementation, and 6 months after implementation
monthly over 12 months of implementation, and 6 months after implementation
Reach of Geriatric Assessment (GA) implementation in routine medical practice as measured by applying the reach formula (# people served divided by potential # of people) to the following four metrics:
Time Frame: monthly over 12 months of implementation, and 6 months after implementation
a) patients per month who received the Geriatric Assessment (GA), b) patients per month who received Geriatric Assessment (GA)-guided recommendations, c) total patients per month age 65+, d) total patients per month who were age 65+ and receiving new chemotherapy or deciding to start chemotherapy.
monthly over 12 months of implementation, and 6 months after implementation

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

M.D. Anderson Cancer Center

Collaborators

Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Lisa Marie Lowenstein, PhD, MPH, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

Helpful Links

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)

May 6, 2022

Primary Completion (Estimated)

January 31, 2027

Study Completion (Estimated)

January 31, 2027

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

June 23, 2022

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 23, 2022

First Posted (Actual)

June 29, 2022

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

April 16, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 13, 2026

Last Verified

April 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 2021-0881
  • NCI-2022-05359 (Other Identifier: NCI-CTRP Clinical Trials Processing Registry)

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

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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