Adjuvant Endocrine Therapy Adherence Intervention Pilot in Rwanda

May 18, 2026 updated by: Temidayo Fadelu, MD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Piloting an Intervention to Improve Adjuvant Endocrine Therapy Adherence in Patients With Breast Cancer in Rwanda

This study aims to evaluate a multi-modal intervention designed to improve adherence to adjuvant endocrine therapy (AET) among patients with ER-positive breast cancer in Rwanda. The intervention includes educational, behavioral, and reminder components, and will be assessed for feasibility and impact on medication adherence.

Study Overview

Status

Not yet recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

This is a randomized study evaluating a light-touch, multi-modal medication adherence support package designed to improve adherence to adjuvant endocrine therapy in adults with confirmed ER-positive breast cancer undergoing curative intent treatment. Eligible participants will be within 6-36 months of adjuvant endocrine therapy initiation and will be randomized to receive either standard care or the medication adherence support package, which includes a one-time educational video, a symptom monitoring card, and weekly one-way text message reminders.

The research study procedures include: screening for eligibility, questionnaires/surveys, interviews, educational video, symptom monitoring card, and weekly text message reminders (as applicable). No additional in-person or telephone contact with research staff is planned beyond delivery of these materials.

It is expected that about 224 adults will take part in this study across all sites.

Participation in this research study is expected to last about 6 months.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

224

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

  • Rwanda
    • RN8
      • Butaro, RN8, Rwanda, 02053
        • Butaro Cancer Center of Excellence
        • Principal Investigator:
          • Temidayo Fadelu, MD
        • Contact:
  • United States
    • Massachusetts
      • Boston, Massachusetts, United States, 02215
        • Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
        • Contact:
        • Principal Investigator:
          • Temidayo Fadelu, MD
      • Boston, Massachusetts, United States, 02115
        • Boston Children's Hospital
        • Contact:
        • Principal Investigator:
          • Temidayo Fadelu, MD
      • Boston, Massachusetts, United States, 02053
        • Brigham and Women's Hospital
        • Contact:
        • Principal Investigator:
          • Temidayo Fadelu, MD

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:

  • Female patients
  • Age 18 or older
  • Pathologic confirmation of ER-positive breast cancer
  • Clinical or radiographic confirmation of disease localized to the breast and regional lymph nodes
  • Within 6-36 months of starting AET
  • Have a cellphone capable of receiving text messages.
  • Are currently receiving AET at Butaro or satellite clinics.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Unwilling/Unable to participate
  • Unable to comprehend study languages (English or Kinyarwanda)
  • Adults unable to consent
  • Individuals who are not yet adults (infants, children, teenagers)
  • Prisoners
  • Pregnant women

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: Health Services Research
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Control
Participants will receive standard care.
Experimental: Intervention
Participants randomized to the intervention arm will receive a light-touch, multi-modal medication adherence support package, including a one-time educational video, a symptom monitoring card, and weekly one-way text message reminders.
Behavioral: Educational video
One-time educational video
Behavioral: Symptom monitoring card
Symptom monitoring card
Behavioral: Text reminders
Weekly one-way text reminders

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
3-month Adherence Rate
Time Frame: 3 months
The proportion of participants adhering to adjuvant endocrine therapy (AET) is based on the Simplified Medication Adherence Questionnaire (SMAQ; Knobel et al. J Acq Immune Deficiency Syndromes 2002). SMAQ is a 6-item assesment tool but only the 4 yes/no questions are used for this endpoint. An affirmative answer to any of the 4 questions defines non-adherent status.
3 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
6-month persistence, 3 and 6 month QOL on FACT
Time Frame: At 3- and 6-months
FACT-ES has 46-items including the 27-item FACT-General (FACT-G) and a 19-item endocrine subscale. (Fallowfield et al. Breast Cancer Research and Treatment 1999) It is scored on a likert scale (0=not at all to 4=very much) with higher scores (range 0-184) indicating better quality of life and fewer symptoms.
At 3- and 6-months
Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast (FACT-B) Score at 3- and 6-months
Time Frame: At 3- and 6-months.
FACT-B has 37-items including the 27-item FACT-General (FACT-G) and a 10-item breast cancer subscale. (Brady et al. JCO 1997) It is scored on a likert scale (0=not at all to 4=very much) with higher scores (range 0-148) indicating better quality of life and fewer symptoms.
At 3- and 6-months.

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Temidayo Fadelu, MD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

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)

September 20, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

December 31, 2027

Study Completion (Estimated)

December 31, 2028

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

April 27, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 27, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

May 1, 2026

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

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 25-838
  • 108707 (Other Grant/Funding Number: Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Program (AMFDP))

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

YES

IPD Plan Description

The Harvard Cancer Center encourages and supports the responsible and ethical sharing of data from clinical trials. De-identified participant data from the final research dataset used in the published manuscript may only be shared under the terms of a Data Use Agreement. Requests may be directed to: [contact information for Sponsor Investigator or designee]. The protocol and statistical analysis plan will be made available on Clinicaltrials.gov only as required by federal regulation or as a condition of awards and agreements supporting the research.

IPD Sharing Time Frame

Data can be shared no earlier than 1 year following the date of publication

IPD Sharing Access Criteria

Contact the Belfer office for Dana -Farber Innovations (BODFI) at innovations@dfci.harvard.edu

IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type

  • STUDY_PROTOCOL
  • SAP

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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