Writing Intervention With Adolescents and Young Adults With Cancer

May 6, 2026 updated by: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

ChronCan (Chronicling Cancer): Piloting a Novel Writing Intervention With Adolescents and Young Adults With Cancer

Young people with cancer have difficult experiences and writing exercises may help improve their well-being. However, very few studies have examined how a creative writing activity might be useful for young people with cancer. In this pilot study, researchers at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital hope to explore whether teenagers and young adults with cancer want to participate in a writing exercise and whether they find it to be valuable.

Primary Objective

To assess the feasibility and acceptability of a writing-based narrative medicine intervention for adolescent and young adult patients with cancer.

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Participants will be given the opportunity to write about their experiences with cancer, with support and guidance from an expert writer. Participants will meet briefly with the expert at the start of the exercise (15-30 minutes), and they can choose to meet 1-3 additional times with the expert over the next 2 months to receive further support if they wish.

After completing the writing exercise, participants will do an informal interview to share their thoughts about whether the experience of writing felt helpful or not. The post-intervention interview will occur at around 2 months after enrollment, +/- 1 month. Patients may participate in a second informal semi-structured interview 6 to 12 months after completing the first interview. Additionally, bereaved parents may participate in an informal interview on study.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

26

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 Contact

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Tennessee
      • Memphis, Tennessee, United States, 38105
        • Recruiting
        • St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
        • Principal Investigator:
          • Erica Kaye, MD
        • Contact:

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

  • Child
  • Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Aged 15-25
  • Currently receiving cancer-directed therapy
  • Active patient at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
  • Parent of a ChronCan participant who has passed away

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Does not meet the inclusion criteria
  • If the parents have not responded or not interviewed till July 31, 2027.

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

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Participants
Adolescents and young adults (AYA) patients aged 15-25 years currently receiving cancer-directed therapy at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Behavioral: Writing
Participants will be asked to write about their experiences with cancer, guided by several specific open-ended writing prompts to spark ideas.
Behavioral: Interview
Following completion of the writing exercise, participants will reflect on their experiences with the writing intervention in a semi-structured private interview with a member of the research team.
Other Names:
  • Questions

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Number of touchpoints that participants have with the narrative medicine expert/guide
Time Frame: During the narrative exercise, up to 2 months after enrollment
To determine intervention feasibility, the number of touchpoints that participants have with the narrative medicine expert/guide will be tracked
During the narrative exercise, up to 2 months after enrollment
Number of participants who complete the writing exercise
Time Frame: During the narrative exercise, up to 2 months after enrollment
To determine intervention feasibility, the number of participants who complete the writing exercise will be tracked
During the narrative exercise, up to 2 months after enrollment
Intervention acceptability
Time Frame: Post-intervention interview will occur after the narrative exercise is completed at around 2 months after enrollment, +/- 1 month
Comparison of acceptability between participants who did/did not participate in the optional check-ins. Analysis of de-identified semi-structured interviews will be done. Interviews will be recorded, transcribed, de-identified, and analyzed using content analysis, an inductive approach that includes memo-writing, codebook development, coding, reconciliation, and synthesis to identify emerging patterns and themes.
Post-intervention interview will occur after the narrative exercise is completed at around 2 months after enrollment, +/- 1 month

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Erica Kaye, MD, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

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)

August 2, 2023

Primary Completion (Actual)

May 17, 2024

Study Completion (Estimated)

July 1, 2027

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

July 27, 2023

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 27, 2023

First Posted (Actual)

August 3, 2023

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

May 8, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 6, 2026

Last Verified

May 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • ChronCan
  • NCI-2023-06074 (Registry Identifier: NCI Clinical Trial Registration Program)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

YES

IPD Plan Description

Individual participant de-identified datasets containing the variables analyzed in the published article will be made available (related to the study primary or secondary objectives contained in the publication). Supporting documents such as the protocol, statistical analyses plan, and informed consent are available through the CTG website for the specific study. Data used to generate the published article will be made available at the time of article publication. Investigators who seek access to individual level de-identified data will contact the computing team in the Department of Biostatistics (ClinTrialDataRequest@stjude.org) who will respond to the data request.

IPD Sharing Time Frame

Data will be made available at the time of article publication.

IPD Sharing Access Criteria

Data will be provided to researchers following a formal request with the following information: full name of requestor, affiliation, data set requested, and timing of when data is needed. As an informational point, the lead statistician and study principal investigator will be informed that primary results datasets have been requested.

IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type

  • STUDY_PROTOCOL
  • SAP
  • ICF

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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