Early Interventional Treatment for Cancer Pain

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute30 enrolled

Overview

The purpose of the study is to evaluate how feasible and beneficial it is to refer patients with cancer pain to a doctor who specializes in pain management, including procedures to relieve pain, and whether this is helpful to patients with pain related to their cancer.

This is a single arm pilot study evaluating a new system of referral and pain evaluation for patients with advanced solid tumors and moderate-to-severe pain who are not already on high-dose opioids to an anesthesia-trained interventional pain management specialist . A variety of interventional treatments for pain have been proven effective for cancer patients. Often without early referral patients do not get evaluated for interventional procedures for their pain unless the pain is very severe, or they are admitted to the hospital. It is expect this intervention will work by providing effective pain treatments to patients sooner than they might normally be referred and will be evaluated by how many patients are candidates for interventional treatments for their pain, whether patients choose to receive these treatments, and whether patients find the pain specialist referral acceptable and helpful The research study procedures include screening for eligibility, study interventions including evaluations and follow up visits, as well as surveys at the beginning, middle, and end of the study. Participants will be followed on the study for 4 months. It is expected that about 30 people will take part in this research study. Medtronic and is providing funding for this research study

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

Purpose

SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Masking

NONE

Enrollment

Conditions

Cancer Pain

Interventions

Early ReferralOTHER

Directing a patient for a pain specialist consult earlier than standardly occurs.

Pain Management StrategiesOTHER

Specialized plan with procedures to ease pain

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 21 Years

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * Diagnosis of a metastatic, or locally advanced unresectable malignancy * Anticipated prognosis of more than 6 months according to the primary oncologist * Age greater than 21 years * Persistent pain with an average pain rating of 4 or greater on an 11-point numeric rating scale (NRS) from 0-10 where 10 is considered the most severe. * Pain has persisted for at least 2 weeks * Pain is due to cancer or sequelae of cancer treatment Exclusion Criteria: * Primary pain syndrome is sensory peripheral neuropathy * Patient is taking more than 200 morphine milligram equivalents (MMEs) per day on average, at the time of recruitment. * Currently cared for by interventional pain management specialist * Receipt of prior pain intervention (e.g. celiac neurolysis) * Bleeding diathesis, uncontrollable infection, or other contra-indications to pain interventions * History of opioid misuse disorder * Inability to speak English * Cognitive impairment or any other disorder that would impede study participation and survey completion * If patients are unable to complete the baseline survey, they will no longer be considered eligible for the study; this will serve as an indication of barriers to participation that would make them unable to comply with study procedures.

Locations (2)

Brigham and Women's Hospital

Boston, Massachusetts, United States

Dana Farber Cancer Institute

Boston, Massachusetts, United States

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Feasibility - Pain Consultation

Feasibility will be measured by the percentage of patients that have an interventional pain consultation within 4 weeks, with a threshold for determining feasibility of at least 80% of participants.

Time frame: 4 Weeks

Feasibility - Interventional Pain Procedure Rate

Feasibility will be measured by the percentage of patients who ultimately receive at least one interventional pain procedure, with a threshold for determining feasibility of at least 50% of participants.

Time frame: 4 Months

Acceptability - Satisfaction Ratings

Acceptability will be measured by the percentage of patients satisfied with their interventional pain management care, with a threshold of at least 80% of patients rating the quality of care received at the interventional pain management clinic at a 7 or above on a 0-10 scale (adapted from HCAHPS; 0 being the worst clinic possible, 10 being the best clinic possible). For participants with missing data at 4-months, we imputed their responses at 2-months.

Time frame: 4 Months

Data from ClinicalTrials.gov

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