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An online mindfulness program for fear of cancer recurrence in people with prostate, breast or bowel cancer.

Improving the mental health of cancer survivors with an online mindfulness program: a partnership model to impact on cancer care.

Status
Completed
Phases
Unknown
Study type
Interventional
Source
ANZCTR
Registry ID
ACTRN12620000645954
Enrollment
434
Registered
2020-06-03
Start date
2020-10-12
Completion date
2023-06-30
Last updated
2026-07-20

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

None listed

Brief summary

The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of an online mindfulness program (MindOnLine) on fear of cancer recurrence, anxiety and depression. Who is it for? 400 adults who have completed treatment for breast, prostate or colorectal cancer and who experience significant fear of cancer recurrence will be invited to participate. Study details People will be allocated to one of two groups by random chance: the intervention group with immediate access to MindOnLine, or a usual care group who will receive the intervention after the follow up period. MindOnLine is a 9 week program where a new theme is introduced each week with a new meditation practice. People will be encouraged to practise mindfulness every day. At the end of the 9 weeks, participants will be asked to complete a series of surveys. It is hoped that this research will help determine whether mindfulness will be an effective method of assisting people in managing fear of cancer recurrence, anxiety, and depression.

Interventions

The intervention is a 9- week online mindfulness program called MindOnLine, which comprises three main components: (1) an educational component to increase participants' knowledge about the science and practice of mindfulness and how it can benefit them in everyday life; (2) a formal mindfulness meditation practice to improve awareness and emotion regulation; and (3) an informal practice to teach participants how to bring mindfulness to daily activities. Mindfulness education will be deliver

The intervention is a 9- week online mindfulness program called MindOnLine, which comprises three main components: (1) an educational component to increase participants' knowledge about the science and practice of mindfulness and how it can benefit them in everyday life; (2) a formal mindfulness meditation practice to improve awareness and emotion regulation; and (3) an informal practice to teach participants how to bring mindfulness to daily activities. Mindfulness education will be delivered using videos and associated video scripts. A new theme is introduced each week with a new meditation practice, which participants will be encouraged to practise every day. Themes include: introduction, reducing stress, relating to emotions, self-compassion, communicating mindfully, living mindfully, reducing worry, reducing worries mindfully and maintaining mindfulness. Each video is approximately 5-10 minutes in length. At the end of each week, participants will receive an email with a link to the video introducing the theme for the upcoming week. The script for the videos will be available for downloading and printing in a pdf format so that participants can keep a copy for later reference. At the end of each video, participants will be reminded by email to continue with their daily meditation practice (formal practice), and given specific informal practice during their daily activities. Examples of informal practice include: Week 1 – “This weeks, notice times you are aware; time you are fully engaged with what you are doing or giving your full attention to someone. And notice times you are not paying attention to the moment you are in; when you are distracted. See if you can notice the difference between these two modes of being.”; Week 2 – “notice when you are activating the stress response. Try to notice those signs in your body that tell you when you are getting stressed. These might be things like feeling butterflies in your stomach, muscle tension, increased heart rate, breathing higher in the chest or feeling irritable and short tempered”. To support the informal practice, participants will have the opportunity to keep a self-reflection journal, which will only be accessible to the participant. The website contains a section addressing common questions about meditation, which can be accessed at any time throughout the course of the program. Participants will be encouraged to practise mindfulness (formally and informally) daily. Participants will have access to a variety of guided mindfulness meditations audios. The guided meditations last for approximately 5-10 minutes. Access and engagement with the various aspects of the MindOnLine program (videos, guided meditations, self-reflection journaling) will be tracked using Google Analytics. Additionally, adherence to the mindfulness meditations will be measured by self-report. At the end of the 9-week program participants will be asked how often they engaged with informal mindfulness practices (including self-reflection journaling) and on average how long (in hour or minutes) they meditated each week.

Sponsors

Deakin University
Lead SponsorUniversity

Study design

Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Primary purpose
Educational / counselling / training

Eligibility

Sex/Gender
All
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

Adult cancer survivors, aged 18+ years, diagnosed with breast, prostate or CRC, who have internet access, have completed treatment within the past 5 years, have internet access, and have a FCRI severity score equal to or greater than 13, indicative of clinically significant FCR.

Exclusion criteria

Insufficient English language skills to understand videos presented in English.

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ANZCTR · Data processed: Jul 23, 2026