Project HOPES: Healthy Options for Pain and Ending Smoking. A Program for Cancer Survivors.

The proposed pilot study will develop and test feasibility, acceptability, and signal for efficacy of a smoking cessation and pain management intervention for 20 cancer survivors.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Smoking Cessation; Pain
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Smoking cessation and pain management intervention; Drug: Varenicline

Detailed Description

The proposed pilot study will develop and test feasibility, acceptability, and signal for efficacy of a smoking cessation and pain management intervention for 20 cancer survivors. There are two specific aims:

Aim 1: To test the feasibility and acceptability of a behavioral smoking cessation and pain management intervention combined with varenicline.

Aim 2: To examine the smoking cessation rate and changes in pain (i.e., severity, interference), self-efficacy (i.e., smoking cessation, pain management), and quality of life from baseline to post-intervention and 3-months post-baseline.

The proposed intervention could have a great impact on the health and quality of life of cancer survivors. Teaching pain management techniques coupled with smoking cessation techniques addresses two critical issues for survivors.

The study team submitted an R01 based on a prior pilot study. Reviewers were enthusiastic about the significance and innovation of addressing smoking and pain simultaneously. They were, however, not convinced by the potential efficacy of our pilot data. They suggested the study team test the same intervention with varenicline as it can both help promote smoking cessation and provide some analgesia for pain. To address reviewer concerns to lead to R01 funding, the study team proposes to build on our combined behavioral smoking cessation and behavioral pain intervention by adding varenicline.

BACKGROUND AND SIGNIFICANCE:

The US currently has an estimated 15.5 million cancer survivors. Approximately 10-30% of all cancer survivors are current smokers at diagnosis. Well more than half (70%) of survivors who are current smokers at diagnosis will either resume smoking after an initial quit attempt or continue smoking following their diagnosis. Those who live in rural areas have an even higher rate of smoking. As many as 70% also suffer from pain as well as other physical and/or psychosocial problems. Although some survivors hold beliefs that smoking reduces pain and alleviates distress, in fact, persistent smoking following cancer diagnosis is associated with worse pain, poor quality of life, increased risk for disease recurrence, and worsening of many comorbid medical conditions. Of importance, quitting smoking significantly improves survivors' response to cancer treatment, reduces cancer recurrence, mitigates risk of new cancers and cardiovascular disease and improves quality of life. Thus, helping survivors quit smoking and learn how to manage their pain is a top priority for oncology providers.

To date, integration of best practices for promoting smoking cessation and pain management among cancer survivors has received little attention, despite smokers who experience pain reporting lower self-efficacy for quitting and greater expectancies of severe withdrawal and poor cessation outcomes. Building upon our longstanding expertise in smoking cessation and pain management interventions, the study team proposes to build on our pilot work by including a pharmacologic agent that can enhance both cessation and pain management. Among pharmacologic treatments, varenicline (i.e., Chantix) has the strongest evidence for helping people quit smoking. Varenicline also acts on receptors to potentially block pain. The study team submitted an R01, and reviewers wanted stronger pilot data that convinced them more that combining a smoking cessation and pain management intervention would help survivors quit smoking. Thus, in addition to published pilot data the study team have with cancer survivors recruited from the Duke Cancer Network (DCN), the study team proposes to recruit survivors who smoke to test whether the study team can increase our cessation rate by adding varenicline to our behavioral smoking cessation pain management program. In our prior pilot, the study team found promising evidence for the feasibility, acceptability, and signal for efficacy of a combined behavioral smoking cessation with nicotine replacement patches and behavioral pain management intervention. Survivors who received the intervention rated it as useful for smoking cessation and pain management. Survivors who received the intervention were more likely to quit smoking than those in the control arm, but only a few survivors quit. Survivors in the intervention compared to the control arm reported improvements in their pain as well as depression and physical well-being, but again these changes were small. Thus, in this proposed pilot, the study team will examine whether adding varenicline to our behavioral program helps more survivors quit smoking and report better pain management. Our primary outcomes will be feasibility, acceptability, and evidence for potential of future efficacy testing a new combination of behavioral smoking cessation and behavioral pain management + varenicline. Our secondary outcome will be biochemically verified 7-day point prevalence smoking abstinence at 3 months. The study team will also examine pain, self-efficacy (smoking, pain management), and quality of life.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 21
• Phase: Phase 4

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • North Carolina
    • Durham, North Carolina, United States, 27710
      • Duke University Health System

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Patients with cancer at our targeted recruitment sites
• Have a diagnosis of cancer within the past 5 years (can be currently undergoing treatment)
• Have a life expectancy of at least 1 year
• Report pain within the last 3 weeks of 3 or higher on a 10 point scale
• Have smoked at least 100 cigarettes in their lifetime
• Smoke 5 or more cigarettes per day in the prior 7 days
• Be willing to try to quit smoking
• Not participating in another smoking cessation trial
• Age 18 or older
• Speak English

Exclusion Criteria:

• Hearing impaired
• Deemed too sick to participate
• Evidence of unstable cognitive or mental health problems who cannot properly provide consent

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Other: Study population; All patients will receive a smoking cessation and pain management intervention combined with clinician-prescribed varenicline.	Other: Smoking cessation and pain management intervention; Patients will receive a behavioral smoking cessation and pain management intervention; Drug: Varenicline; Patients will receive varenicline prescribed by their oncologist; Other Names: Chantix; Chantix Starting Month Box; Tyrvaya

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Number of Participants Who Complete the Study	Completing study participation is the number of those who attend all sessions and complete follow-up surveys. This will serve as the feasibility benchmark.	6 months post-intervention, specifically at 9 months
Number of Participants Who Report That the Intervention Was Helpful	Participants will be asked if they found the intervention helpful on follow-up surveys. This will serve as the acceptability benchmark.	6 months post-intervention, specifically at 9 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Number of Participants With Validated Cessation	Biochemically verified 7-day point prevalence smoking abstinence with use of CO (carbon monoxide) monitors.	6 months post-intervention, specifically at 9 months
Patient-reported Pain Severity	Patients will report their pain on a scale from 0-10 [0 being "no pain" and 10 being "pain as bad as you can imagine"] on administered surveys at baseline, post-intervention, and 3-month post-intervention. Study team will look to see if there is a change in patient-reported pain.	Baseline, post-treatment (3 months), 6-month follow-up
Patient-reported Pain Interference	Patients will report how pain is affecting their lives 0-10 [0 being "does not interfere" and 10 being "completely interferes"] on administered surveys.	Baseline, post-treatment (3 months), 6-month follow-up
Change in Patient-reported Smoking Cessation Self-efficacy	Patients will report their ability to stop smoking on administered surveys at baseline, post-intervention, and 6 months post-intervention. Smoking self-efficacy is measured on a scale from 1 to 7 where 1 is "not confident at all" and 7 is "extremely confident". Study team will look to see if there is a change in patient-reported self-efficacy.	Baseline, post-treatment (3 months), 6-month follow-up
Change in Patient-reported Pain Management Self-efficacy	Patients will report their ability to manage their pain on administered surveys at baseline, post-intervention, and 6 months post-intervention. Pain management self-efficacy is measured on a scale of 1-10 where 1 is "very uncertain, 5 is "moderately uncertain", and 10 is "very uncertain". The total score ranges from 7 to 70, where higher scores indicate greater self-efficacy and confidence in managing daily life with pain.	Baseline, post-treatment (3 months), 6-month follow-up
Change in Patient-reported Quality of Life as Measured by the Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale (HADS) - Anxiety	Patients will respond to questions about their perceived quality of life on administered surveys at baseline, 3 months post-intervention, and 6 months post-intervention. Quality of life will be measured based on questions related to Depression/Mood/Negative Affect (Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale - HADS). The Anxiety subscale has a score ranging from 0-21, where higher scores indicate greater symptom severity.	Baseline, post-intervention (3 months), 6-month follow-up
Change in Patient-reported Quality of Life as Measured by the Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale (HADS) - Depression	Patients will respond to questions about their perceived quality of life on administered surveys at baseline, 3 months post-intervention, and 6 months post-intervention. Quality of life will be measured based on questions related to Depression/Mood/Negative Affect (Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale - HADS). The Depression subscale has a score ranging from 0-21, where higher scores indicate greater symptom severity.	Baseline, post-intervention (3 months), 6-month follow-up
Change in Patient-reported Quality of Life as Measured by the Rhode Island Stress and Coping Inventory - Coping	Patients will respond to questions about their perceived quality of life on administered surveys at baseline, post-intervention, and 6 months post-intervention. Quality of life will be measured based on questions from the Coping subscale of the Rhode Island Stress and Coping Inventory. Patients will answer five questions on scale from 1 = "never" to 5 = "most of the time" and is reported as an average score. Higher scores indicate stronger coping capabilities.	Baseline, post-intervention (3 months), 6-month follow-up
Change in Patient-reported Quality of Life - Physical Well Being	Patients will respond to questions about their perceived quality of life on administered surveys at baseline, post-intervention, and 6 months post-intervention. Quality of life will be measured based on questions related to Physical Well Being. Patients will answer questions on a 5-point scale from 0 = "not at all" to 4 = "very much". A higher score indicates worse well being.	Baseline, post-intervention (3 months), 6-month follow-up

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Duke University
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Kathryn I Pollak, PhD, Duke University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): July 15, 2024
• Primary Completion (Actual): August 29, 2025
• Study Completion (Actual): August 29, 2025

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: August 23, 2023
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 1, 2023
• First Posted (Actual): September 8, 2023

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): August 25, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 31, 2026
• Last Verified: July 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Pain management; Smoking cessation; Cancer survivors
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Neurologic Manifestations; Nervous System Diseases; Neurobehavioral Manifestations; Perceptual Disorders; Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms; Behavior; Signs and Symptoms; Health Behavior; Pain; Agnosia; Smoking Cessation; Heterocyclic Compounds; Heterocyclic Compounds, 2-Ring; Heterocyclic Compounds, Fused-Ring; Benzazepines; Quinoxalines; Varenicline
• Other Study ID Numbers: Pro00113492

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
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: Yes