Malignant Digestive System Neoplasm
Conditions
Brief summary
This clinical trial assesses whether narrative medicine methods may improve the sense of well-being among gastrointestinal (GI) (digestive system) cancer patients. Narrative medicine is a clinical approach where providers can use a patient's own narrative (perspective) of their illness to promote healing and resilience. By applying narrative medicine's main tool, close reading, to clinical practice, clinicians learn to listen and attend to patients more deeply. This allows for freer communication and the creation of a healthcare encounter that centers on the psychological and emotional well being of the patient in addition to their medical conditions. Narrative medicine can include close reading, creative or reflective writing, and discussion. These methods may help patients with GI cancer to reflect on their life stories, both inside and outside of their illness experience, and help them gather skills to optimize their well-being.
Detailed description
PRIMARY OBJECTIVES: I. To assess the feasibility of implementing narrative medicine tools in serial workshops with patients with malignancy. II. To determine if narrative medicine interventions improve markers and expressions of well-being. DESCRIPTIVE OBJECTIVES: I. To estimate changes in markers and expressions of well-being after 3 sessions of narrative medicine intervention. II. To determine, through qualitative methods, if patients find benefit from the intervention regarding their well-being. III. To decide whether to expand these kinds of interventions to a larger study with control group. OUTLINE: Patients participate in narrative medicine sessions over 60 minutes once every 2 weeks (Q2W) for 3 sessions. After completion of study intervention, patients are followed up at 1 and 3 months.
Interventions
PROCEDUREDiscussion
Participate in narrative medicine sessions
OTHERInterview
Ancillary studies
OTHERSurvey Administration
Ancillary studies
Sponsors
University of Southern California
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Study design
Allocation
NA
Intervention model
SINGLE_GROUP
Primary purpose
SUPPORTIVE_CARE
Masking
NONE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* Patients with diagnosis of gastrointestinal malignancy actively receiving infusional therapy for cancer. * Age \>= 18 years. * English speaking with ability to participate in reading and writing questionnaires and implementation tools. * Performance Status =\< Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) 3.
Exclusion criteria
* Altered mental status or other cognitive impairment, organic or drug induced that would limit ability to participate in the evaluation.
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Number of participants who complete the narrative medicine sessions | Up to 3 months | To determine the intervention feasibility, the number of participants who complete the narrative medicine sessions will be tracked. |
| Change in well-being scores | Up to 3 months | Will be evaluated using the Edmonton Symptom Assessment System-Revised Version (ESAS-r). The total score ranges from 0 to 10, with a higher score indicating worse outcomes. |
Countries
United States
Outcome results
None listed