Clinical trial · Interventional
Intervention to Improve Supportive Care for Family Caregivers of Patients With Lung Cancer
Effectiveness of a Multi-faceted Intervention to Improve Supportive Care for Family Caregivers of Patients With Lung Cancer
- 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)
Family caregivers play a crucial role in cancer patients care, as they are their principal source of support. It is well recommended to provide them with the resources, information and support needed to maintain a good health, and to sustain their caregiving role. Recently, oncology centres have implemented systematic distress screening programs, but the focus has been limited to cancer patients, with little intervention on family caregivers. This study aims to address this gap. It will implement and test the effectiveness of a simple intervention integrating primary care and oncology care that transfers into practice the main recommendations of governmental authorities and experts to globally improve supportive care. The intervention includes systematic distress screening and problems assessment of family caregivers at diagnosis, and every two months, privileged contact with a nurse away from the patient to address caregivers distress and identified problems, and for caregivers experiencing high level of distress, liaison by the study nurse with their family physician to transfer information on their identified problems and level of distress and to facilitate shared follow-up. This intervention has been pilot-tested with family caregivers, health care providers and decision makers involved in lung cancer care, as well as with community-based family physicians, to ensure its feasibility and acceptability. This study findings may clearly improve patient and caregiver experience of cancer care, and reduce the burden of disease.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lung Cancer | Malignant Lung Neoplasm | CURATED_EXACT | 0.92 |
Interventions
Interventions (1)
| Intervention | Type | Mapped drug | Match |
|---|---|---|---|
| Supportive care | Other | — | UNRESOLVED |
Design
Arms and outcomes
Arms (2)
- type
- EXPERIMENTAL
- label
- Experimental: supportive care
- description
- Family caregivers (FC) in the experimental arm (supportive care) will be exposed to a multi-faceted intervention to help them cope with their caregiving role, support them and respond to their needs; the intervention includes 3 components: 1) systematic distress screening and problems assessment of FCs at 2-month interval during the study period; 2) privileged contact with an oncology nurse away from the patient to further identify and address FCs' problems; 3) liaison by the oncology nurse with the family physician of FCs fwho will have reported high distress or needing help
- interventionNames
- Other: Supportive care
- type
- NO_INTERVENTION
- label
- Control: usual care
- description
- In the control arm (usual care), FCs will assist to their relative initial visit to the pivot nurse in oncology (PNO) . The PNO screens patients for distress and assesses their needs. She does a bio-psycho-social comprehensive evaluation and may provide help and information. She responds to questions and refers to appropriate resources, staying available for patients and their FCs throughout the cancer care trajectory. However, most PNO interventions target the patient, with no systematic distress screening and problems assessment for FCs, nor any service and resource specifically dedicated to them. If FCs clearly express distress or particular needs, the PNO will address them or refer to appropriate resources, but, in usual care, only few FCs receive support services
Eligibility
Eligibility (as posted)
- Sex
- All
- Minimum age
- 18 Years
Show eligibility criteria text
Inclusion Criteria: * Relative identified by patients diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer as their principal family caregiver; having a family physician Exclusion Criteria: * Cognitive disorder
References
Publications (1)
- DERIVEDAubin M, Vezina L, Verreault R, Simard S, Desbiens JF, Tremblay L, Dumont S, Fillion L, Dogba MJ, Gagnon P. Effectiveness of an intervention to improve supportive care for family caregivers of patients with lung cancer: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial. Trials. 2017 Jul 4;18(1):304. doi: 10.1186/s13063-017-2044-y. PMID 28676071