Digital Intervention for Symptom Management in Cancer and Opioid Sparing Using Virtual Reality (DISCOVR) Study (DISCOVR)

Digital Intervention for Symptom Management in Cancer and Opioid Sparing Using Virtual Reality (DISCOVR) - Feasibility, Acceptability, Usability Testing of a Novel Intervention

Patients living with cancer commonly have chronic pain due to the disease or to cancer treatments. Virtual reality, a new technology that immerses the user in pleasant, diverting, and exciting virtual environments, may lower chronic cancer pain to improve quality of life and complement need for pain medications like opioids. The investigators aim to learn from patients about the experience of cancer pain, develop a virtual reality prototype specific to cancer pain management, and test the feasibility and acceptability of this technology to improve the cancer pain experience.

Study Overview

• Status: Recruiting
• Conditions: Cancer
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: virtual reality pain therapy

Detailed Description

Patients living with cancer commonly experience chronic pain, defined as pain lasting at least three months. While cancer pain management has traditionally focused on pharmacologic therapies, particularly opioids, pain experts, clinical guidelines, and patients living with cancer increasingly support the use of non-pharmacologic therapies (including mind-body modalities such as distraction, mindfulness, and cognitive behavioral therapy) to mitigate pain and potentially reduce pain medication needs. Virtual reality (VR), a rapidly evolving technology that immerses the user in pleasant, virtual environments, has been shown to lower different forms of acute and chronic pain syndromes, but has not been developed specifically to improve chronic cancer pain. The long-term goal of the investigators is to develop and disseminate a patient-centered, patient-driven VR intervention that significantly improves the chronic cancer pain experience. Towards this end, they propose a multi-phase project involving active patient stakeholder input and an iterative design process that will achieve the following Specific Aims: Aim 1 - to identify patient perceptions around chronic cancer pain experiences and management strategies; Aim 2 - to develop a highly feasible, acceptable, usable, safe VR prototype enabling patient-directed management of cancer pain; Aim 3 - to conduct a trial to assess prototype feasibility, acceptability, usability, and safety. Completion of this project will lead towards development of a scalable VR intervention to mitigate pain that has potential to dramatically improve quality of life and clinical outcomes in patients living with chronic cancer pain.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 25
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Hunter Groninger, MD; Phone Number: 202-877-7445; Email: hunter.groninger@medstar.net
• Study Contact Backup: Name: Eloisa Leiva; Email: eloisa.leiva@medstar.net

Study Locations

• United States
  • District of Columbia
    • Washington D.C., District of Columbia, United States, 20010
      • Recruiting
      • MedStar Georgetown Cancer Institute at MedStar Washington Hospital Center
      • Contact: Eloisa Leiva; Phone Number: (202) 877-5468; Email: eloisa.leiva@medstar.net

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

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

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• age ≥18 years old
• living with active cancer diagnosis (any solid tumor type)
• report chronic cancer pain (≥3 months) with baseline severity moderate-severe (i.e., self-report pain score (SRPS) ≥4/10, where 0=no pain, 10=worst pain)
• prescribed chronic opioid therapies (may be long-acting formulations, short-acting formulations, or both)

Exclusion Criteria:

• history of intractable nausea/vomiting, motion sickness, seizures/epilepsy, and/or cranial structure abnormalities preventing VR headset use
• moderate-severe pain of non-cancer etiology (e.g., chronic lumbago)
• enrolled in another pain study
• unable to complete surveys in English or Spanish.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Virtual reality pain therapy	Behavioral: virtual reality pain therapy; DISCOVR virtual reality pain therapy

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Intervention feasibility	>70% of participants completing the prescribed use of VR headset daily (≥10 minutes) for one week	From enrollment to end of treatment at 7 days

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Acceptability	Technology Acceptance Model questionnaire	Collected at end of 7 days participation
Usability	System Usability Scale	Collected at end of 7 day participation

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Medstar Health Research Institute
• Collaborators: National Cancer Institute (NCI)
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Hunter Groninger, MD, Medstar Health Research Institute

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): December 1, 2025
• Primary Completion (Estimated): August 31, 2026
• Study Completion (Estimated): August 31, 2026

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 13, 2025
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 13, 2025
• First Posted (Estimated): November 14, 2025

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): December 24, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 22, 2025
• Last Verified: November 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: chronic pain; opioid; virtual reality; technology; cancer pain
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Pain; Neurologic Manifestations; Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms; Signs and Symptoms; Cancer Pain; Neoplasms; Chronic Pain
• Other Study ID Numbers: STUDY00010075; 1R43CA302795-01A1 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: UNDECIDED

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No