Clinical trial · Interventional
A Spiritual Health Intervention (PATH) for Improving Spiritual, Religious and Emotional Distress in Cancer Patients
Personal Archetypes Toward Healing (PATH) Trial
- Source
- ClinicalTrials.gov
- Retrieved
- Sep 18, 2026
- Layer
- normalized (units and labels harmonized; values unchanged)
- Run
- ING-CLINICALTRIALS-20260918-000001
Summary
Brief summary (as posted)
This clinical trial tests the feasibility and effectiveness of a spiritual health intervention (Personal Archetypes Toward Healing Trial \[PATH\]) for improving spiritual, religious and existential distress in patients with cancer. Many patients with cancer find their diagnosis to elicit challenges to their sense of connection, meaning, and purpose. This distress can significantly impact their quality of life. However, spiritual care interventions are often overlooked. PATH builds on multiple theories and therapeutic practices such as role-playing, archetype psychology, cognitive theory, emotion regulation therapy, and dignity therapy. PATH sessions cover topics such as individuation, intrapersonal meaning and worth, intrapersonal distress and faith, interpersonal distress and faith, and transpersonal distress and faith. The PATH intervention may help cancer patients shift their perspectives and access new insights for working through their spiritual, religious and existential distress.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hematopoietic and Lymphatic System Neoplasm | Hematopoietic and Lymphatic System Neoplasm | ONTOLOGY_EXACT | 0.98 |
| Malignant Solid Neoplasm | Malignant Solid Neoplasm | ONTOLOGY_EXACT | 0.98 |
Interventions
Interventions (3)
| Intervention | Type | Mapped drug | Match |
|---|---|---|---|
| Interview | Other | — | UNRESOLVED |
| Spiritual Therapy | Procedure | — | UNRESOLVED |
| Survey Administration | Other | — | UNRESOLVED |
Design
Arms and outcomes
Arms (1)
- type
- EXPERIMENTAL
- label
- Supportive care (PATH)
- description
- Patients attend 1 individual PATH session with the interventionist on day 1 and then attend group PATH workshop sessions weekly for 5 sessions (days 7, 14, 21, 28, and 35).
- interventionNames
- Procedure: Spiritual Therapy
- Other: Survey Administration
- Other: Interview
Primary outcomes (5)
- measure
- Accrual rates (feasibility) (Aim 1)
- timeFrame
- At time of enrollment
- description
- Feasibility will be examined by conducting frequency and descriptive statistics for enrollment rates. The benchmark for feasibility is ≥ 50% of screened eligible patients enroll in the study. To test this, will perform a one-sample proportion test to examine if the proportion of participants meeting the benchmark for feasibility is significantly higher than 0.50. Feasibility process outcomes will be analyzed to determine whether the intervention is feasible for future dissemination and implementation efforts and recruitment of a full-scale randomized controlled trial.
Eligibility
Eligibility (as posted)
- Sex
- All
- Minimum age
- 18 Years
Show eligibility criteria text
Inclusion Criteria: * Age 18 years of age or older * English speaking * Able to provide informed consent * Current diagnosis of cancer at any stage, engaged in active treatment or surveillance at Fred Hutch Cancer Center * Scores of "Somewhat" or above on at least 1 item the Religious and Spiritual Struggles scale (RSS-5) (e.g., Somewhat = 3 on a 1-to-5 Likert scale) Exclusion Criteria: * Non-oncology Fred Hutch patients
References
Publications (0)
Data not yet available