Clinical trial · Interventional
Therapeutic Touch in Cancer Patients Receiving Palliative Care
The Effect of Therapeutic Touch on Sleep Quality and Fatigue Severity in Advanced Cancer Patients in the Palliative Care Setting: A Randomized Controlled Trial
- 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)
This study aims to examine the effect of therapeutic touch applied to advanced cancer patients receiving palliative care on sleep quality and fatigue severity. This is a randomized controlled experimental study using a pretest-posttest design. The study includes advanced-stage cancer patients receiving support in a palliative care unit. Research data will be collected from patients between March and August 2024 using face-to-face interviews. The intervention group will receive therapeutic touch for 20 minutes per day for 5 consecutive days, while the control group will continue to receive routine palliative care. Data will be collected using a Personal Information Form, the Richards-Campbell Sleep Questionnaire (RCSQ), and the Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS).
Conditions
Conditions (5)
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 |
| Fatigue Syndrome, Chronic | — | UNRESOLVED | — |
| Palliative Care | — | UNRESOLVED | — |
| Sleep | — | UNRESOLVED | — |
| Therapeutic Touch | — | UNRESOLVED | — |
Interventions
Interventions (2)
| Intervention | Type | Mapped drug | Match |
|---|---|---|---|
| Routine Palliative Care | Other | — | UNRESOLVED |
| Therapeutic Touch | Behavioral | — | UNRESOLVED |
Design
Arms and outcomes
Arms (2)
- type
- EXPERIMENTAL
- label
- therapeutic touch intervention group
- description
- Scales were applied to the intervention group in the first interview and pre-test data were obtained. In the next process, therapeutic touch was performed to the intervention group for approximately 10-15 minutes on the head, shoulders, hands and feet starting at 22:00 at night for 5 days on weekdays within the scope of the research.
- interventionNames
- Behavioral: Therapeutic Touch
- type
- ACTIVE_COMPARATOR
- label
- Control: Routine Palliative Care Group
- description
- Control group continued with routine palliative care protocols. No therapeutic touch or other specific touch-based intervention was applied. Scales were applied at the same time points as the intervention group.
- interventionNames
- Other: Routine Palliative Care
Primary outcomes (1)
Eligibility
Eligibility (as posted)
- Sex
- All
- Minimum age
- 18 Years
- Maximum age
- 100 Years
Show eligibility criteria text
Inclusion Criteria: * Inclusion Criteria: * 18 years of age or older * Pathologically confirmed advanced-stage cancer (stage 3-4) * Receiving palliative care treatment * Richards-Campbell Sleep Questionnaire (RCSQ) score ≤50 * Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS) score ≥4 * Mini-Mental Test score ≥24 Exclusion Criteria: * Known diagnosis of a major sleep disorder * Presence of acute infection * Widespread dermatological lesions compromising skin integrity (e.g., ulcer, eczema) * Dementia, delirium, or severe cognitive impairment * Hearing or vision loss that would hinder therapeutic communication * Medical condition that would contraindicate the application as determined by the palliative care team
References
Publications (0)
Data not yet available