Clinical trial NCT02887833: Thermal Testing in Bone Pain (TiBoP)
Official title: An Exploratory Study to Develop and Evaluate a Simple Bedside Tool for Community Use to Identify Who is Most Likely to Benefit From Palliative Radiotherapy for Cancer Induced Bone Pain: Thermal Testing in Bone Pain (TiBoP)
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Conditions: Cancer Induced Bone Pain
Secondary Malignant Neoplasm of Bone
Toxicity Due to Radiotherapy
Pain
Lead sponsor: University of Edinburgh
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: NHS Lothian
First posted: 2016-09-02
Enrollment: 27
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Maximum age (years): 100
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Observational model: COHORT
Time perspective: PROSPECTIVE
Sampling method: PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: Patients with cancer induced bone pain scheduled to undergo palliative radiotherapy for this

Brief summary: If cancer spreads to bones it can be very painful, especially when trying to move around. One of the best treatments is radiotherapy, which has to be given in a cancer centre. Even with this treatment, only about half of people will get good pain relief, and that can take up to 6 weeks to work fully. If we know who is unlikely to benefit , then we can explore other forms of pain relief sooner, without having to go through radiotherapy unnecessarily.

We have found that there may be a very simple way to identify patients likely to get good pain relief, using a test of changes in temperature sensation over the painful bone. This study will explore whether this simple bedside test can be used in a community setting to identify which patients suffering from cancer induced bone pain will get good pain relief from radiotherapy.

Detailed description: Bone is the third most common site of metastatic disease, after liver and lung, with \~75 per cent of these patients suffering from related pain. Cancer-induced bone pain (CIBP) remains one of the major clinical challenges in palliative care, with a number of possible reasons for this. Bone pain can have a significant impact on physical, psychological and social functioning (and so overall quality of life). The mechanisms of CIBP are complex and may have unique characteristics that are different from neuropathic and inflammatory pain - this has clear implications for managing CIBP effectively. Current gold standard treatment for CIBP is palliative radiotherapy (XRT). Radiotherapy is the current standard treatment for CIBP, although only 55% of patients will achieve adequate analgesia from palliative radiotherapy, and this can take up to 6 weeks to work. There has been considerable interest in how clinical signs and symptoms in pain translate into underlying mechanisms, and how this may be used to direct treatment more effectively. The clinical assessment of somatosensory processing used for neuropathic pain can be extensive, and burdensome for frail patients.

The investigators have developed a modified assessment for use in patients with cancer, that can be used in a hospital setting. The investigators clinical pilot work used detailed phenotyping of CIBP, to try and better understand underlying mechanisms and detect changes in somatosensory processing. The investigators found that changes in temperature sensitivity may predict pain relief from XRT. Following on from this the investigators propose to develop a simple bedside tool, suitable for use in the community, which will potentially identify patients most likely to benefit from radiotherapy.

Development of this tool requires adequate validation and evaluation so that it can be used as an aid to deciding which patients are more likely to benefit from radiotherapy. In those patients unlikely to benefit, early identification would allow use of other symptom control strategies in the community, minimising the burden of unnecessary hospital attendance, and avoiding the acute pain flare that can occur with XRT.

The investigators hypothesis is that alterations in thermal sensitivity will reflect important changes in underlying pain neurobiology that will make that patient more, or less, likely to get effective analgesia from XRT. Assessment of CIBP There have been recommendations suggested for the use of pain measurement tools and methods in clinical practice to try and include the wider aspects of the pain experience (www.immpact.org). In patients with cancer, it is important to minimise any burden from assessment. We have therefore use a very a simple approach to try and capture the important elements of CIBP and its impact. This consists of a number of validated self report questionnaires (see below), plus a measurement of skin sensitivity to warm and cool (40°C, 25°C), as identified from our previous work as potential predictors of treatment response to XRT.

Self report measures include: the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI); The Short-Form McGill Pain Questionnaire (SF-MPQ-2); the Hospital Anxiety \& Depression Scale (HADS); the Distress Thermometer; the EORTC health-related quality of life questionnaire for bone metastases.

Patients with CIBP will be assessed prior to XRT, then at 2, 6 and 12 weeks after XRT.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* diagnosis of cancer with pain related to bony disease (pain ≥4/10 on a numerical pain rating scale);
* due to receive XRT for CIBP;
* outpatient;
* age 18-100;
* able to complete assessment and give written informed consent.

Exclusion Criteria:

* • they are confused or suffering from significant psychiatric illness

  * their condition is unstable or rapidly deteriorating
  * they have any other medical condition that would confound the objectives of the study
  * they who would be adversely affected by study participation. This would include those who are unaware of the presence of progressive disease or who would, in the opinion of the medical team, find completion of the study too burdensome
  * they would be unable to complete the study protocol for any other reason

Primary outcomes:
measure: Sensitivity and specificity of the thermal sensitivity score in CIBP with respect to experiencing a "positive outcome" after XRT
timeFrame: 6 weeks
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Sensitivity and specificity of thermal testing with respect to experiencing a positive outcome
timeFrame: 12 weeks
measure: Change in validated self report measures of the pain experience
timeFrame: 2,6,12 weeks
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Edinburgh
country: United Kingdom
facility: Edinburgh Cancer Centre
Study officials:
affiliation: NHS Lothian/ University of Edinburgh
name: Lesley Colvin, PhDFRCA FRCP
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
affiliation: University of Edinburgh
name: Marie Fallon, MD FRCP
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Laird BJ, Walley J, Murray GD, Clausen E, Colvin LA, Fallon MT. Characterization of cancer-induced bone pain: an exploratory study. Support Care Cancer. 2011 Sep;19(9):1393-401. doi: 10.1007/s00520-010-0961-3. Epub 2010 Aug 1.
citation: Delaney A, Fleetwood-Walker SM, Colvin LA, Fallon M. Translational medicine: cancer pain mechanisms and management. Br J Anaesth. 2008 Jul;101(1):87-94. doi: 10.1093/bja/aen100. Epub 2008 May 19.
citation: Parker RA, Sande TA, Laird B, Hoskin P, Fallon M, Colvin L. Bayesian methods in palliative care research: cancer-induced bone pain. BMJ Support Palliat Care. 2022 May;12(e1):e5-e9. doi: 10.1136/bmjspcare-2019-002160. Epub 2020 Mar 5.