Interactive Voice Response (IVR) Symptom Assessment in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) Patients

Not Applicable

Completed

Conditions: Lung Cancer

Interventions: Behavioral: Questionnaire
Behavioral: Interactive Voice Response Telephone System
Behavioral: IVR Plus Triage

Registration Number: NCT00423436

Lead Sponsor: M.D. Anderson Cancer Center

Brief Summary: Primary Objectives:

* To compare the effectiveness of an interactive voice response (IVR) telephone triage/feedback system versus an interactive voice response telephone system with assessment only in monitoring and managing symptoms in patients with advanced non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

* To compare differences in mood and quality of life variables of patients using the IVR triage/feedback system versus IVR assessment only.

* To compare the healthcare utilization (emergency visits, admissions, length of stay for hospitalizations for uncontrolled symptoms) of patients using the IVR triage/feedback system versus IVR assessment only.

Detailed Description: You will be asked to complete several questionnaires during a visit to the Thoracic Clinic. These questionnaires measure physical and emotional symptoms, and quality of life. Completing the questionnaires takes about 30-45 minutes. The research nurse will also teach you how to use the telephone system for reporting symptoms. You will tell the research nurse when the most convenient times for the telephone calls and the telephone system will be set up to call at those times.

It is not clear at this time whether the telephone symptom evaluation is better than the usual plan that doctors and nurses follow for asking about symptoms. For this reason, you will be randomly picked (as in the toss of a coin) to be in one of two groups. The chance of being in either one of the two programs is about equal.

Half of the patients will be assigned to the "telephone assessment system plus triage" group. If you are assigned to this group, you will report symptoms to the telephone system and the doctor or nurse at M.D. Anderson will be notified when a symptom is severe. You will also be encouraged to report all symptoms to their doctor and nurse at M.D. Anderson.

Half of the patients will be assigned to the "telephone assessment only" group. If you are assigned to this group, your symptom information will only be given through the telephone system. You will also be encouraged to report all symptoms directly to your doctor and nurse at M.D. Anderson. Your physician may request information from the telephone system.

If you are assigned to this "telephone assessment only" group, the telephone system will call you twice a week during 2 cycles of chemotherapy. It is programmed to ask you to rate your symptoms and how much the symptoms interfere in your life. Rating symptoms using the telephone system takes less than five minutes for each call.

After each chemotherapy cycle, you and patients in both groups will be asked to fill out questionnaires during a clinic visit. The questionnaires are used to measure emotional symptoms and quality of life. Completing the questionnaires takes about 15-30 minutes. Your medical charts will also be reviewed and information collected about medical history.

If you have agreed to participate in the companion caregiver study, the study staff will use your demographic and clinical data to study the influence of your symptoms on your caregiver's physical and mental health.

This is an investigational study. About 100 will be enrolled at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. A total of 136 patients will take part in this multicenter study.

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status: COMPLETED

Sex: All

Target Recruitment: 84

Inclusion Criteria

Patients diagnosed with stage III or IV non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) or small cell lung cancer (SCLC) (Patients who have received other prior chemotherapy are eligible.)
18 years of age or older
English-speaking
Lives in the United States
Adequate vision and hearing to use the Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system
Provides written informed consent

Exclusion Criteria

Current diagnosis of psychosis or dementia
Patients unable to complete the assessment measures or unable to understand the purpose of the study

Study & Design

Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL

Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
IVR Assessment Plus Triage	Interactive Voice Response Telephone System	Interactive Voice Response Telephone System (IVR) Plus Triage (Participants report symptoms to telephone system and doctor/nurse notified when symptom is severe) + Questionnaire
IVR Assessment Plus Triage	IVR Plus Triage	Interactive Voice Response Telephone System (IVR) Plus Triage (Participants report symptoms to telephone system and doctor/nurse notified when symptom is severe) + Questionnaire
IVR Assessment Only	Questionnaire	IVR (Phone calls twice weekly) + Questionnaire
IVR Assessment Plus Triage	Questionnaire	Interactive Voice Response Telephone System (IVR) Plus Triage (Participants report symptoms to telephone system and doctor/nurse notified when symptom is severe) + Questionnaire

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Ratio of Number of Alerts Generated by Symptom Distress Over the Number of Available Assessments	Baseline to end of first chemotherapy cycle (generally chemotherapy and 1 assessment of response within 6-8 weeks)	Total number of alerts generated by symptom exceeding prespecified threshold for 7 symptoms - pain, fatigue, nausea, cough, constipation, vomiting and shortness of breath (Ratio alerts/number of assessments using IVR telephone triage/feedback versus IVR only). Reporting 0-10 severity scale of MD Anderson Symptom Inventory from 0 (symptom not present) to 10 (symptom bad as imagine it could be). Thresholds set at 4 on scale for all symptoms except shortness of breath and constipation where threshold set at 2. More than one symptom alert may appear per assessment causing ratio values to exceed 1.

Secondary Outcome Measures