Malignant Neoplasm, Side Effect
Conditions
Brief summary
This study is asking patients who are undergoing radiation therapy with or without chemotherapy on how well they evaluate their side effects on the last day of treatment. This study is not to change health outcomes of the patients in this study. Asking patients to rank side effects in order of which ones bother them the most may help researchers identify the most troubling side effects of cancer treatment.
Detailed description
PRIMARY OBJECTIVES: I. To examine the perceptions of side effects and their subjective severity of patients treated with radiotherapy with and without concurrent chemotherapy at Los Angeles County (LAC) + University of Southern California (USC) Medical Center. SECONDARY OBJECTIVES: I. To identify the most troubling side effects of patients treated with radiotherapy with and without concurrent chemotherapy at LAC+USC Medical Center. II. To evaluate the impact of chemotherapy combined with radiation therapy, in regards to whether or not perceptions of side effects are altered by what cancer treatment is given. OUTLINE: Patients are shown two groups of cards on the last day of radiation treatment. Group A lists 48 physical side effects and group B lists 27 psychosocial side effects. The cards are shuffled and patients view one card at a time and select the side effects they attribute to their current treatment. Patients rank the selected cards from each group by order of severity. The top 5 cards from each group are then shuffled together and patients rank the remaining 10 cards in order of severity.
Interventions
OTHERClinical Observation
Undergo side effects evaluation using cards
Sponsors
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
University of Southern California
Study design
Observational model
CASE_ONLY
Time perspective
PROSPECTIVE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* Diagnosis of cancer * Has received at least 4 consecutive weeks of definitive radiation treatment, with or without concurrent chemotherapy * Has not received greater than 4 weeks of chemotherapy prior to radiation therapy start * Ability to understand and the willingness to sign a written informed consent
Exclusion criteria
* Patients with either a central nervous system (CNS)-primary cancer or with brain metastases
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Identify the most common type of side effects as perceived by patients on the last day of radiation treatment | Up to 1 year | Tables and bar charts will be used to display the 10-20 highest ranked side effects overall, by sex and concurrent chemotherapy. Descriptive statistics such as means and standard deviation will be used. |
Countries
United States
Outcome results
None listed