Clinical trial · Interventional
Early Integrated Supportive Care Study for Gastrointestinal Cancer Patients
- 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)
Currently at the BC Cancer Agency, oncologists decide when to refer a patient to the Pain and Symptom Management/Palliative Care (PSMPC) team, and their decisions are made subjectively and without standard guidelines/symptom assessment tools. Patients are often referred late in their treatment. The PSMPC team sees patients in their own clinic, separately from the oncologists, and do not often collaborate in a patient's care. Early integration of palliative care into oncological care has been shown to improve quality of life and to prolong survival, as well as to reduce inappropriately aggressive oncological care at end of life, and reduce costs of care. We will test an early oncology-integrated palliative care model, with the aims of determining whether 1) the introduction of PSMPC support at the time of diagnosis leads to better symptom management and quality of life of patients, 2) early integration of palliative care into medical oncology care reduces aggressiveness of cancer treatment near end of life, and 3) a fully integrated service delivery model is sustainable.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Early palliative care | Behavioral | — | UNRESOLVED |
Design
Arms and outcomes
Arms (2)
- type
- ACTIVE_COMPARATOR
- label
- Early Palliative Care
- description
- During their first oncology appointment, the intervention arm patients will self-report any symptoms related to their cancer or treatment to the study team; scores at or above a defined benchmark will be seen by Pain and Symptom Management/Palliative Care team members during or immediately after their oncology appointment. Patients will be asked to self-report symptoms once a month following recruitment, for 4 months.
- interventionNames
- Behavioral: Early palliative care
- type
- NO_INTERVENTION
- label
- Standard Care
- description
- During their first oncology appointment, the control arm patients will self-report any symptoms related to their cancer or treatment to the study team; self-reports will be collected but not shared with the Pain and Symptom Management/Palliative Care team, and patients will continue with their oncology appointment as per standard procedure. Patients will be asked to self-report symptoms once a month following recruitment, for 4 months.
Primary outcomes (1)
Eligibility
Eligibility (as posted)
- Sex
- All
- Minimum age
- 18 Years
Show eligibility criteria text
Inclusion Criteria: * diagnosed with a gastrointestinal (GI) cancer * have appointments in GI clinic during study days * able to complete a symptom assessment form on their own or with the help of a family member or interpreter Exclusion Criteria: * already receiving care from the Pain and Symptom Management/Palliative Care team
References
Publications (0)
Data not yet available