Studying Pain and Symptom Distress in Patients With Advanced Colon Cancer, Rectal Cancer, Pancreatic Cancer, or Liver Cancer

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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RATIONALE: Studying a patient's understanding of his or her illness, pain, symptoms, and quality-of-life may help the study of advanced cancer and may help patients live more comfortably. PURPOSE: This clinical trial is studying pain and symptom distress in patients with advanced colon cancer, rectal cancer, pancreatic cancer, or liver cancer.

Detailed Description
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OBJECTIVES: To describe illness perception as indicated in the five domains of the Common Sense Model (i.e., identity, cause, time line, consequences, controllability) and their relationship to symptom distress in patients with colon, rectal, pancreatic, or liver (i.e., hepatocellular carcinoma) cancer. To describe pain and other symptoms and their relationship to overall symptom distress in these patients. To describe overall quality of life (QOL) and its specific summary scales in these patients. To explore the relationship among characteristics (i.e., sociodemographic, disease, health status) associated with illness perceptions, overall symptom distress, and QOL in these patients. OUTLINE: Patients undergo an empirical examination of illness perceptions as predictors of disease, specifically from the five domains in the Common Sense Model. Patients undergo an assessment of the relationship between influencing characteristics (i.e., sociodemographic), symptoms, and behavioral factors (i.e., illness perceptions, overall symptom distress, and quality of life). Patients complete questionnaires to evaluate demographics by the Sociodemographic, Disease, and Health Status Tool; illness perception by the Illness Perception Questionnaire-Revised (IPQ-R); symptoms and symptom distress by the Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale (MSAS) and Brief Pain Inventory; and quality of life by the SF-12. Patients also undergo a medical chart review and self-report on sociodemographic characteristics.

Official Title
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Illness Perception, Pain and Symptom Distress in Gastrointestinal Cancers

Conditions
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Colorectal Cancer, Depression, Fatigue, Liver Cancer, Pain, Pancreatic Cancer

Intervention / Treatment
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* Other: medical chart review
* Other: questionnaire administration
* Other: study of socioeconomic and demographic variables
* Procedure: quality-of-life assessment


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS: Histologically confirmed colon, rectal, pancreatic, or liver (i.e., hepatocellular carcinoma) cancer Stage III or IV colon, rectal, or pancreatic cancer Child-Pugh class B or C hepatocellular carcinoma PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS: Able to read English Able to provide written informed consent and complete questionnaire packet PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY: Any treatment modality (e.g., chemotherapy, radiotherapy, surgery) allowed

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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Arms and Interventions

| Intervention/Treatment |
| --- |
|Other: medical chart review|nan|
|Other: questionnaire administration|nan|
|Other: study of socioeconomic and demographic variables|nan|
|Procedure: quality-of-life assessment|nan|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Illness perception as indicated in the five domains of the Common Sense Model (i.e., identity, cause, time line, consequences, controllability) and their relationship to symptom distress |  | At study entry | 
| Pain and other symptoms, and their relationship to overall symptom distress |  | At study entry | 
| Overall quality of life (QOL) and its specific summary scales |  | At study entry | 
| Relationship among characteristics (i.e., sociodemographic, disease, health status) associated with illness perceptions, overall symptom distress, and QOL) |  | At study entry | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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pain, depression, fatigue, stage III colon cancer, stage IV colon cancer, recurrent colon cancer, stage III rectal cancer, stage IV rectal cancer, recurrent rectal cancer, stage III pancreatic cancer, stage IV pancreatic cancer, recurrent pancreatic cancer, adult primary hepatocellular carcinoma, advanced adult primary liver cancer, localized unresectable adult primary liver cancer, recurrent adult primary liver cancer