Facilitating Advance Care Planning Discussions for People With Advanced Cancer

January 27, 2026 updated by: University of Illinois at Chicago

Facilitating Advance Care Planning Discussions Between Patients With Advanced Cancer and Their Family Caregivers Using a Resilience-Building Intervention

The aims of this study are to (1) identify the advance care planning deliberation process among 20 dyads of patients with advanced cancer and family caregivers and (2) conduct usability testing among 9 dyads to refine the content and design of the web-based resilience-building intervention.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Patients with advanced cancer have not fully benefited from advance care planning due to the high levels of anxiety and depression experienced and other barriers that affect their appraisals and coping. Despite the protective effects of resilience, there have been few clinical trials improving the resilience skills of patients with advanced cancer and their family caregivers to help initiate advance care planning discussions and sustain engagement. This research will provide new insights through using a dyadic intervention approach to advance care planning while developing and evaluating a web-based resilience-building intervention to improve the completion of advance directives, resilience, coping, anxiety, and depression for patients with advanced cancer and their family caregivers.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

36

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
    • Illinois
      • Chicago, Illinois, United States, 60607
        • University of Illinois Chicago

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

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Patients will be eligible for the study if they (1) are ≥ 18 years of age; (2) have a cancer diagnosis; (3) are able to read and respond to questions in English with minimal assistance from family caregivers for interpretation; (4) have previously completed an advance directive such as a living will; (5) have a family caregiver who serves as a surrogate in the advance directive and is willing to participate in the study; and (6) have access to the internet on a cell phone, laptop, or computer.
  • Family caregivers will be eligible if they (1) are ≥ 18 years of age; (2) are able to read and respond to questions in English with minimal assistance from others for interpretation; (3) are identified by the patient as a family caregiver who serves as a surrogate for health care decisions; and (4) have access to the internet on a cell phone, laptop, or computer.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Patients who have cognitive impairment per a Short Portable Mental Status Questionnaire score < 8.

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

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Web-based resilience-building
The web-based resilience-building intervention will be implemented on a website and consist of (1) assessments to help participants (a) understand their coping strategies and (b) appraise their beliefs, values, and goals about advance care planning and (2) 6 weekly modules.
Behavioral: Web-based resilience-building intervention
There are 6 modules on the website. Participants will be encouraged to verbalize their impressions of the website prototype.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Usability
Time Frame: Immediately at the end of the usability testing
Qualitative feedback from participants about the impressions of the website prototype
Immediately at the end of the usability testing

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

University of Illinois at Chicago

Collaborators

National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR)

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)

July 9, 2024

Primary Completion (Actual)

May 22, 2025

Study Completion (Actual)

May 22, 2025

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

September 25, 2023

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 25, 2023

First Posted (Actual)

September 29, 2023

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

January 29, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 27, 2026

Last Verified

February 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 2023-0430
  • K99NR020358-01A1 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

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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