Clinical trial · Interventional
Familien-SCOUT: Comprehensive Support for Families With a Parent Suffering From 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)
When a parent with minor children falls ill with cancer, it is extremely stressful for all of the family members, including the partner and children. Familiar everyday routines are often disrupted even at an early stage, and for a prolonged period. Financial difficulties, the threat represented by the uncertain course of the disease, and worries about the children's future have a cumulative effect. The affected families are thereby pushed to their limits organizationally and emotionally. The burden involved tends to be underestimated, and secondary psychological conditions often develop among all the family members. They often do not have adequate access to support. The aim of this project is to establish a care management system that provides support for families with underage children in which one parent is seriously ill. In order to reduce the burden on families, "family SCOUTS" are to be used who can provide advice and information at an early stage. They are intended to encourage families to discuss things openly, and they should also facilitate access to all the support services available. The project will evaluate whether the use of family SCOUTS reduces the burden on the family in comparison with families who do not have a family SCOUT. For this purpose, investigations will be carried out before and after the family SCOUTS are deployed. Standardized questionnaires, interviews, and routine data from the participating health-insurance companies will provide the basic data.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Families With Minor Children and One Parent Suffering From Cancer | — | UNRESOLVED | — |
Interventions
Interventions (1)
| Intervention | Type | Mapped drug | Match |
|---|---|---|---|
| F-SPOKE | Other | — | UNRESOLVED |
Design
Arms and outcomes
Arms (2)
- type
- EXPERIMENTAL
- label
- Intervention group (IG)
- description
- Families receive permanent contact persons to support in the organisation of everyday life, financial applications, during emotional coping with illness and open communication within the family.
- interventionNames
- Other: F-SPOKE
- type
- NO_INTERVENTION
- label
- Control Group
- description
- In the control group the families are treated according to the standard of care.
Primary outcomes (1)
- measure
- Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS
- timeFrame
- Change from Baseline HADS at 9 months
- description
- HADS is used to record anxiety and depression in patients with physical diseases or psychogenic physical symptoms.Each item on the questionnaire is scored from 0-3 and this means that a person can score between 0 and 21 for either anxiety or depression. The HADS uses a scale and therefore the data returned from the HADS is ordinal.
Eligibility
Eligibility (as posted)
- Sex
- All
- Minimum age
- 8 Years
Show eligibility criteria text
Inclusion Criteria: * Confirmed ICD diagnosis of cancer in one parent * Custody of at least one underage child * Adequate knowledge of German * Availability of informed consent to participate in the study from the patient and/or healthy parent and linkage to questionnaire data and routine data Exclusion Criteria: * Withdrawal of consent by the ill or healthy parent * Relevant cognitive limitation, advanced dementia * Individuals who are in relationships of dependence or employment to the project managers or their representatives
References
Publications (5)
- DERIVEDHolsteg S, Klett MK, Kisic AM, Horbach-Bremen R, Brune M, Dohmen M, Drueke B, Ernstmann N, Geiser F, Heier L, Heuser C, Icks A, Panse J, Petermann-Meyer A, Viehmann A, Karger A. Psychological burden, quality of life, problems, and parental concerns of single mothers with cancer: a cross-sectional comparison. Support Care Cancer. 2025 Feb 11;33(3):173. doi: 10.1007/s00520-025-09225-y. PMID 39932595
- DERIVEDHeuser C, Ernstmann N, Heier L, Nakata H, Geiser F, Karger A, Icks A, Brune M, Haastert B, Horbach-Bremen R, Brummendorf T, Petermann-Meyer A. Health-Related Quality of Life and Experiences of Minor Children With Parental Cancer-A Family-Based Multilevel Analysis of Determinants. Psychooncology. 2024 Nov;33(11):e70029. doi: 10.1002/pon.70029. PMID 39562832
- DERIVEDErnstmann N, Nakata H, Heier L, Heuser C, Dohmen M, Bremen R, Geiser F, Holsteg S, Karger A, Viehmann A, Brune M, Icks A, Haastert B, Brummendorf TH, Petermann-Meyer A. Feasibility of a complex psychosocial intervention for families with parental cancer: acceptability, suitability, implementability, and perceived support. J Cancer Res Clin Oncol. 2024 Oct 17;150(10):464. doi: 10.1007/s00432-024-05946-5. PMID 39414623
- DERIVEDHeuser C, Schneider JN, Heier L, Ernstmann N, Nakata H, Petermann-Meyer A, Bremen R, Karger A, Icks A, Brummendorf TH, Geiser F. Family resilience of families with parental cancer and minor children: a qualitative analysis. Front Psychol. 2024 Jan 19;14:1251049. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1251049. eCollection 2023. PMID 38314254
- DERIVEDDohmen M, Petermann-Meyer A, Blei D, Bremen R, Brock-Midding E, Brune M, Geiser F, Haastert B, Halbach SM, Heuser C, Holsteg S, Heier L, Icks A, Karger A, Montalbo J, Nakata H, Panse J, Rottmann TP, Sattler K, Viehmann A, Vomhof M, Ernstmann N, Brummendorf TH. Comprehensive support for families with parental cancer (Family-SCOUT), evaluation of a complex intervention: study protocol for a non-randomized controlled trial. Trials. 2021 Sep 15;22(1):622. doi: 10.1186/s13063-021-05577-y. PMID 34526078