Clinical trial · Interventional
Assessing Impact of CCO's PSO & PC Pathway in Ambulatory HNC Clinics
Assessing the Impact of Cancer Care Ontario's Psychosocial Oncology & Palliative Care Pathway in Ambulatory Head and Neck Cancer Clinics
- 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)
Rates of depression and anxiety in cancer patients are much higher compared to the general population. 40% of head and neck cancer patients will develop significant distress along the cancer journey. Less than half of these patients are able to access support, with factors such as age, social difficulty, cancer stage and site affecting referral. In 2016, 78,000 Canadians died of cancer, yet there is limited implementation of routine and integrated advanced care planning in cancer care. An upcoming deliverable of all cancer centres in Ontario is the integration of Cancer Care Ontario's Psychosocial and Palliative Care (PSOPC) pathway into all disease pathways. Successful widespread implementation of this pathway at Odette Cancer Centre (OCC) will impact \>16,000 patients/year. If effective, it will reduce suffering, unnecessary healthcare utilization, improve treatment decisions and compliance, enable a better quality of life in survivorship and improve quality at end of life. There is a need for better developed, standardized response pathways to address PSO and PC needs throughout the patient's journey.
Conditions
Conditions (2)
Free-text conditions as registered, with the CancerIndex entity they were reconciled to and the match type.
| Condition (as posted) | Mapped entity | Match | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Head and Neck Cancer | Malignant Head and Neck Neoplasm | ALIAS | 0.90 |
| Supportive Care | — | UNRESOLVED | — |
Interventions
Interventions (1)
| Intervention | Type | Mapped drug | Match |
|---|---|---|---|
| PSOPC pathway approach | Other | — | UNRESOLVED |
Design
Arms and outcomes
Arms (2)
- type
- NO_INTERVENTION
- label
- Treatment as Usual Control Group
- description
- Treatment as usual.
- type
- EXPERIMENTAL
- label
- Intervention Group
- description
- Use of a standardized PSOPC pathway approach, prompted follow up with patients and documentation.
- interventionNames
- Other: PSOPC pathway approach
Primary outcomes (1)
- measure
- Increased documentation of response to symptoms (ESAS), PPS, illness understanding and advanced care planning (ACP)
- timeFrame
- baseline
- description
- Documented high ESAS scores (\>6) and of all PPS scores, symptom management and conversations about PSO-either distress/management/referral/resources, PC needs, and ACP, illness understanding
Eligibility
Eligibility (as posted)
- Sex
- All
- Minimum age
- 18 Years
- Maximum age
- 65 Years
Show eligibility criteria text
Inclusion Criteria: * Consenting ambulatory OCC HNC patients, with baseline ESAS scores of \>2 (emotional) or \>3 (physical symptoms) with no active suicidal ideation, cognitive impairment or significant debilitation such that participation would be burdensome for participants and/or safety concerns as determined by a research assistant. Exclusion Criteria: * If participants endorse thoughts of dying at baseline, they will be asked to complete semi-structured questions to assess suicidal ideation (SI). If there is any active SI or intent, the oncology team will be informed, a record kept and the participant will be withdrawn from the study.
References
Publications (52)
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- BACKGROUNDBurlein-Hall, S. (January 2015). Unpublished data from Odette Cancer Centre symptom screening audit.
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