Perceptions of Burden in Patients With Late-Stage Cancer and Their Caregivers

Withdrawn

• Conditions: Unspecified Adult Solid Tumor, Protocol Specific; Brain and Central Nervous System Tumors; Depression; Lymphoma; Myelodysplastic Syndromes; Psychosocial Effects of Cancer and Its Treatment; Chronic Myeloproliferative Disorders; Leukemia; Multiple Myeloma and Plasma Cell Neoplasm; Myelodysplastic/Myeloproliferative Neoplasms

• Registration Number: NCT00770419
• Lead Sponsor: Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Brief Summary

RATIONALE: Gathering information over time about patients' sense of being a burden on their caregiver, and caregivers' sense of burden on themselves, may help doctors learn more about the desire to die in patients with late-stage cancer.

PURPOSE: This clinical trial is studying perceptions of burden in patients with late-stage cancer and their caregivers.

Detailed Description

OBJECTIVES:

Primary

* To measure psychosocial correlates of desire for hastened death (DHD) and change in DHD in patients with late-stage cancer by examining the relationship among a patient's perception of being a burden, their caregiver's perceptions of the patient's burdensomeness, and DHD changes over time.

Secondary

* To identify coping and personality factors in both caregivers and patients that may be related to the patients' DHD and changes in their DHD.

OUTLINE: Patients and caregiver dyads complete questionnaires at baseline, 2 months, and 4 months. The dyads complete demographic questionnaire, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), the Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS), the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS), and the Life Orientation Test-Revised (LOT-R). Patients also complete the Schedule of Attitudes Toward Hastened Death (SAHD), the Brief Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced (Brief COPE), the Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale-Short Form (MSAS-SF), and the Caregiver Demands Scale (CDS). Caregivers also complete the Katz Index of Independence in Activities of Daily Living (IADL).

Patients' medical charts are reviewed for stage and node status at primary diagnosis, previous oncology surgeries, previous adjuvant treatments, treatment at time of recurrence, disease free interval, site of metastasis, and response to current treatment.

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2008-05
• Study First Submitted: 2008-10-09
• Study First Submitted QC: 2008-10-09
• Study First Posted: 2008-10-10
• Primary Completion: 2010-01
• Study Completion: 2010-02
• Status Verified: 2015-05
• Last Update Submitted: 2015-05-27
• Last Update Posted: 2015-05-29

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: WITHDRAWN
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: Not specified

Inclusion Criteria

Not provided

Exclusion Criteria

Not provided

Study & Design

• Study Type: OBSERVATIONAL
• Study Design: Not specified

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Relationship between patient's sense of being a burden on primary caregiver & increase in patient desire for hastened death (DHD) by Caregiver Demands Scale (CDS) at baseline & Schedule of Attitudes toward Hastened Death (SAHD) at 2 & 4 mo.
Contribution of the caregiver's sense of caregiver burden, as measured by the caregiver version of the CDS at baseline, on increases in patient DHD over time

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Identification of coping and personality factors in both caregivers and patients that may be related to the patients' DHD and changes in their DHD