A Digital Art Activity to Enhance Self-Disclosure and the Detection of Psycho-social Distress in Adult Cancer Patients

To look at how a digital art activity may help cancer patients improve their ability to express their distress, symptoms, and lived experience.

Study Overview

• Status: Recruiting
• Conditions: Cancer
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Digital Art Activity

Detailed Description

Primary objective:

• To evaluate how engaging in a digital art activity might potentially cause changes in symptom reporting, based on pre/post self-reporting on the Edmonton Symptom Assessment System (ESAS) at time T3.

Secondary objectives:

• To evaluate the changes in symptom reporting, based on pre/post self-reporting on ESAS at different times of the study (T1, T2).
• To evaluate how a specific creative art making activity (T3), compared to an active control condition (T2; music listening) may or may not impact reporting ESAS.
• To monitor potential changes in distress disclosure, based on the self-report scoring on the Distress Disclosure Index score at T0, T2 and T3.

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Estimated): 60

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Carlos Roldan, MD; Phone Number: (713) 563-7402; Email: croldan@mdanderson.org

Study Locations

• United States
  • Texas
    • Houston, Texas, United States, 77030
      • Recruiting
      • MD Anderson Cancer Center
      • Contact: Carlos Roldan, MD; Phone Number: 713-563-7402; Email: croldan@mdanderson.org
      • Principal Investigator: Carlos Roldan, MD

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

• Sampling Method: Probability Sample

Study Population

M D Anderson Cancer Center

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

1. Age equal or greater than 18 years
2. Patients who are admitted in the hospital and have received a cancer diagnosis.
3. Suffering from solid cancer or hematological malignancy and receiving active treatment for their cancer.
4. Voluntary written consent.
5. Fluent in English or Spanish.

Exclusion Criteria:

1. Not being able to use a digital tablet
2. Being speech impaired or vision impaired
3. Patients who are cognitively impaired and unable to read or consent for the study
4. Pregnant women

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Number of groups / cohorts

1

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort

Intervention / Treatment

Digital Art Activity; Visit 1, Participants will be asked to complete a symptom questionnaire and then you will interact with the digital art tool. Participants will first complete a short breathing exercise, and then Participants will interact with the digital art tool. The digital tool combines a digital canvas with a collage activity. Participants will be asked to choose a background and then answer questions about your general well-being and your physical and emotional symptoms as they relate to cancer and cancer treatment. Visit 2, Participants will be asked to fill out the symptom questionnaire, complete another activity such as listening to meditative music for 10 minutes, and then fill out the symptom questionnaire again. Visit 3, Participants will fill out the symptom questionnaire and engage in the digital art activity again. Participants will then be asked to fill out 3 other questionnaires about your feelings of distress.

Behavioral: Digital Art Activity; complete a symptom questionnaire; complete another activity such as listening to meditative music for 10 minutes; fill out the symptom questionnaire and engage in the digital art activity again

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
The Edmonton Symptom Assessment System, (ESAS) questionnaires	Score Scale (0-10) 0 No symptom-10 Worst possible	through study completion; an average 1 year.

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Carlos Roldan, MD, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center

Publications and helpful links

Helpful Links

• M D Anderson Cancer Center

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): November 2, 2023
• Primary Completion (Estimated): August 31, 2027
• Study Completion (Estimated): August 31, 2027

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 7, 2023
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 7, 2023
• First Posted (Actual): November 13, 2023

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): May 20, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 18, 2026
• Last Verified: May 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Neoplasms
• Other Study ID Numbers: 2023-0328; NCI-2023-09557 (Other Identifier: NCI-CTRP Clinical Trials 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