A Tailored Medication Adherence-Promotion Intervention for Adolescents and Young Adults With Cancer

October 30, 2025 updated by: Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if a tailored intervention can help make it easier for adolescents and young adults with cancer to take their medications. The main questions the researchers are trying to answer are:

  • Does the tailored intervention increase adherence?
  • Does the tailored intervention improve quality of life?
  • Does the tailored intervention reduce health care utilization?

The researchers will compare the tailored intervention to a uniform standard of care intervention (an intervention designed to be similar to what is currently happening in clinical care) to see if the tailored intervention works to improve adherence.

Participants will:

  • Use an electronic pill bottle or box to store their medication
  • Participate in intervention sessions
  • Complete surveys before the intervention, after the intervention, and 6-months later

Study Overview

Status

Not yet recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

The proposed research includes a randomized clinical trial of a tailored adherence-promotion intervention (Tailored Program) as compared to uniform standard of care (Feedback Program) for adolescents and young adults with cancer. As part of this study, up to 160 adolescents and young adults (AYAs) with cancer will be randomized to one of these groups. Participants who enroll in this trial will be given an electronic pill bottle or box with a computer chip to store their medication. After using the electronic monitor for a few weeks to assess baseline adherence, participants who demonstrate non-adherence and have used the electronic monitor without difficulty will be asked to complete pre-treatment questionnaires. Next, participants will be randomly assigned to one of the two groups and complete their assigned program. Adolescents and young adults will continue to use the electronic monitor to store their medication until approximately a month after their program ends. After their program ends, participants will complete questionnaires at post-treatment and again about 6 months later.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

160

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
    • Kansas
      • Kansas City, Kansas, United States, 66160
        • The University of Kansas Medical Center
        • Contact:
    • New York
      • New York, New York, United States, 1003230702
    • Ohio
      • Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, 45229
        • Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
    • Washington
      • Seattle, Washington, United States, 98105
        • Seattle Children's Hospital

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:

  • Patient is 15.00 to 24.99 years of age
  • Patient is diagnosed with cancer
  • Patient is prescribed an oral anticancer/antitumor agent or prophylaxis

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Patient is not fluent in English
  • Patient evidences significant cognitive deficits
  • Patient's medical status or treatment precludes participation
  • Patient enrolled on a medical trial requiring medication storage in a trial-provided container
  • Patient demonstrates greater than or equal to 95% adherence during run-in period
  • Patient declines to use or has difficulty using electronic adherence monitoring device during run-in

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: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Tailored Program
8-week program including 4 coach visits and 4 text check-ins
Behavioral: Tailored Program
Participants will participate in 4 sessions with a coach, 1 every other week. During these sessions, the participant will work with their coach to identify a barrier to adherence they would like to target. Then, they will work with their coach to create an action plan using evidence-based behavior change techniques to address this barrier. In between sessions (on alternating weeks), the coach will check-in with a text reminder about the plan.
Other: Feedback Program (Uniform Standard of Care)
8-week feedback program including weekly texts
Behavioral: Feedback Program (Uniform Standard of Care)
Participants will receive weekly text messages with feedback about their adherence and guidance for requesting additional support if desired

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Medication Adherence
Time Frame: The 1-month period following the completion of one of the study programs.
Each participant will be given an electronic adherence monitoring device to store their medication. An electronic adherence monitoring device is a pill bottle or box with an embedded computer chip. The computer chip records each time the device is opened. These device openings, or actuations, will be compared with the patient's prescribed medication regimen to compute their adherence (defined as the percentage of doses taken as prescribed).
The 1-month period following the completion of one of the study programs.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Quality of Life (Mental Health)
Time Frame: Approximately 1 month after completing one of the study programs
PROMIS (Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System) Global Mental Health 2a. Raw score range = 2-10. Higher scores = better quality of life.
Approximately 1 month after completing one of the study programs
Quality of Life (Physical Health)
Time Frame: Approximately 1 month after completing one of the study programs
PROMIS (Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System) Global Physical Health 2a. Raw score range = 2-10. Higher scores = better quality of life.
Approximately 1 month after completing one of the study programs
Healthcare Utilization
Time Frame: 6 months post-treatment
Number of oncology visits, lab draws, ED visits, and hospitalizations
6 months post-treatment

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati

Collaborators

National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Columbia University
Seattle Children's Hospital
University of Kansas Medical Center

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Meghan E. McGrady, PhD, Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati

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 (Estimated)

March 1, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

January 1, 2030

Study Completion (Estimated)

August 1, 2030

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

October 28, 2025

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

October 30, 2025

First Posted (Estimated)

October 31, 2025

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimated)

October 31, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

October 30, 2025

Last Verified

October 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • R37CA302422 (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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