Cancer Patient Perceptions of the Osteopathy Treatment: a Qualitative Study

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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For more than seven years an osteopath has been working in the palliative care unit (PCU) and in both palliative care mobile team (PCMT) as a member of the multidisciplinary team. The patients referred to the osteopath by the palliative care physicians present pains related to cancer, but also to the treatment, in particular to surgery or radiotherapy. The osteopath can help with other symptoms such as constipation or dyspnoea. As this approach is provided in complement of the medicinal approach, it is not considered as an alternative medicine but as a complementary medicine associated to a conventional care. It seemed relevant to the investigators to ask the cancer patients undergoing osteopathic sessions for pain how they saw this complementary therapy.

Official Title
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Cancer Patient Perceptions of the Osteopathy Treatment: a Qualitative Study

Conditions
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Cancer Patients

Intervention / Treatment
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* Other: Ostheopathic treatment


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: Advanced illness patients with cancer pain, PS 0 to 2, willing to take part in the study and having signed the informed consent form Exclusion Criteria: Non-communicating patients and patients whose cancer has been cured. Patients with fractural risk.

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 18 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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No

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
Intervention Model: Single Group Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Other: Osteopathic treatment<br> | Other: Ostheopathic treatment<br>* Once their clinical data were collected and their symptoms were assessed, all the enrolled patients had an osteopathic session a week during two weeks. After those sessions, they had an interview (scheduled between D11 and D14) with a psychologist<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Thoughs and emotions of patients undergoing the two osteopathic sessions as complementary therapy for pain, evaluated using semi-directed interviews | Once clinical data were collected and symptoms were assessed, all the enrolled patients had an osteopathic session a week during two weeks. After those sessions, they had an interview (scheduled between J11 and J14) with a psychologist. The research assistant psychologist conducted the semi-directed interviews. The interview questions were geared toward eliciting open-ended responses to acquire specific information about the patient thoughts and emotions associated with osteopathic treatment. In our study, we conducted two preliminary interviews to test the quality of the questions we planned to use with the participants. The specific questions that were used during the interview are available on request from the authors. | around day 14 (after the second session) | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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osteopathy, complementary therapy, symptoms in cancer patients