Clinical trial · Interventional
Care Partners: Web-based Support for Caregivers of Veterans Undergoing Chemotherapy
Web-based Support for Caregivers of Veterans Undergoing Chemotherapy
- Source
- ClinicalTrials.gov
- Retrieved
- Sep 8, 2026
- Layer
- normalized (units and labels harmonized; values unchanged)
- Run
- ING-CLINICALTRIALS-20260908-000001
Summary
Brief summary (as posted)
Given the growing strain on the Veterans Administration resulting from increasing caseloads of cancer patients, interventions are badly needed that assist patients in managing their illness, improve quality of life and avoid acute episodes that result in urgent care use and increased mortality. Previous studies have found that cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy can effectively manage their own symptoms when monitored using automated telephone calls. Such technology, however, may challenge the number of Veterans who lack social support and/or independence. The goal was to develop and test a technology that not only monitors patients automatically by telephone, but also gives them self management advice and engages a friend or family member to serve as a CarePartner willing to play a limited role in identifying patient symptoms and psychosocial needs to reinforce self management and provide social support. The investigators found that this technology indeed helped patients better control their symptoms, especially when a caregiver participated in the program along with them.
Conditions
Conditions (1)
Free-text conditions as registered, with the CancerIndex entity they were reconciled to and the match type.
| Condition (as posted) | Mapped entity | Match | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cancer | Malignant Neoplasm | ALIAS | 0.90 |
Interventions
Interventions (1)
| Intervention | Type | Mapped drug | Match |
|---|---|---|---|
| Caregiver website | Behavioral | — | UNRESOLVED |
Design
Arms and outcomes
Arms (2)
- type
- EXPERIMENTAL
- label
- CarePartners+
- description
- Patients receive automated telephonic symptom assessment and symptom management advice; caregivers receive the intervention (Intervention = access to a caregiver Web site that updates them on patient's symptoms and provides tailored problem solving advice).
- interventionNames
- Behavioral: Caregiver website
- type
- NO_INTERVENTION
- label
- CarePartners-
- description
- Patients receive automated telephonic symptom assessment and symptom management advice; caregivers receive nothing (i.e. no access to the caregiver website, or 'intervention').
Primary outcomes (1)
- measure
- Summed Symptom Severity
- timeFrame
- 3 months
- description
Eligibility
Eligibility (as posted)
- Sex
- All
- Minimum age
- 18 Years
Show eligibility criteria text
Inclusion Criteria: * Patients must be 18 years or older, cognitively intact, English-speaking, able to hear, and own a telephone. * Patients can have any solid tumor. * Patients must be initiating IV cytotoxic chemotherapy and, if recurrent, have experienced a 1 month treatment free interval. * Caregivers must be 18 years or older, cognitively intact, English-speaking, and able to hear/speak for interviews. * Caregivers must have access to a telephone and computer with high speed internet access. Exclusion Criteria: * Patients will be excluded if they have a hematologic malignancy or are receiving bone marrow transplantation. * Patients and caregivers will be excluded if they have an untreated serious mental illness or cognitive impairment, are institutionalized or enrolled in hospice (prior to trial), or plan on not receiving all care from VA
References
Publications (1)
- RESULTSilveira MJ, Given CW, Cease KB, Sikorskii A, Given B, Northouse LL, Piette JD. Cancer Carepartners: Improving patients' symptom management by engaging informal caregivers. BMC Palliat Care. 2011 Nov 25;10:21. doi: 10.1186/1472-684X-10-21. PMID 22117890