Clinical trial NCT00902733: Nurse-Provided Care or Standard Care in Treating Patients With Pancreatic Cancer
Official title: A Standardized Nursing Intervention Protocol for Pancreatic Cancer as a Chronic Illness
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Fatigue
Nausea and Vomiting
Pain
Pancreatic Cancer
Keywords: pain
fatigue
nausea and vomiting
recurrent pancreatic cancer
stage I pancreatic cancer
stage II pancreatic cancer
stage III pancreatic cancer
stage IV pancreatic cancer
Lead sponsor: City of Hope Medical Center
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: National Cancer Institute (NCI)
First posted: 2009-05-15
Enrollment: 125
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Primary purpose: HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Brief summary: RATIONALE: Meeting with a nurse to assess symptoms and quality of life may be more effective than standard care in treating patients with pancreatic cancer.

PURPOSE: This clinical trial is studying nurse-provided care to see how well it works compared with standard care in treating patients with pancreatic cancer.

Detailed description: OBJECTIVES:

* To test the effects of an advanced practice nurse (APN) standardized nursing-intervention protocol (SNIP) model vs usual care on overall quality of life (QOL) and psychological distress from initial treatment to 6 months post diagnosis for patients with pancreatic cancer.
* To compare symptom control in these patients.
* To compare geriatric assessment outcomes in these patients.
* To test the effects of the SNIP intervention as compared to the usual care group on resource use by these patients.
* To test the effects of SNIP on patients' and clinicians' satisfaction with care.
* To describe the effects of SNIP on patients' management of transitions from one phase of chronic illness to another.
* To identify subgroups of these patients who benefit most from the SNIP in relation to sociodemographic characteristics, disease/treatment factors, and geriatric assessment predictors.
* To obtain feedback from clinicians regarding interpretation of findings and application to the routine care of pancreatic cancer patients.

OUTLINE: Patients are sequentially enrolled to 1 of 2 groups. Group 1 is enrolled during months 4-21 and group 2 during months 25-54.

* Group 1 (usual care): Patient questionnaires are administered at baseline and at 3 and 6 months. The clinicians' satisfaction with care is also evaluated.
* Group 2 (advanced practice nurse \[APN\] intervention): Patients are accrued by an APN. Patients meet with the APN periodically to assess their physical well-being including ambulatory care needed, care of physical symptoms (i.e., pain, fatigue, nausea and vomiting), and psychological well-being. Questionnaires are administered at baseline and at 3 and 6 months.

In both groups, questionnaires include the FACT-Hep, Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale, Psychological Distress Thermometer, Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment, and Patient Satisfaction with Intervention. Clinicians also complete questionnaires. Patients' medical charts are also reviewed.

Eligibility criteria: DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

* Diagnosis of pancreatic cancer (all stages)

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

* Admitted to City of Hope National Medical Center

  * Resides within a 30-mile radius of the medical center
* No prior cancer

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

* No prior therapy

Primary outcomes:
measure: Quality of life, psychological distress, symptom relief, geriatric assessment outcome, and resource use at 3 months
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Long-term impact at 6 months
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Duarte
country: United States
facility: City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center
state: California
Study officials:
affiliation: City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center
name: Marcia Grant, RN, DNSc, FAAN
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: