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Sleep and Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors

Completed
Conditions
Lung Cancer
Registration Number
NCT04070651
Lead Sponsor
Aarhus University Hospital
Brief Summary

Sleep disturbances are prevalent in cancer patients and linked to levels of fatigue and depressive symptoms with a major impact on quality of life. A growing body of evidence links sleep disturbances with various health outcomes, including increased risk of depression, cancer, and overall mortality. Inflammation is suggested to be an underlying mechanism both driving and maintaining the symptom cluster of sleep disturbance, fatigue and depressive symptoms, as well as being bi-directionally linked to sleep. The main purpose of the present study is to investigate the prevalence of sleep disturbance and its association with psychological and physical symptoms as well as the clinical response to ICI in non-small-cell lung cancer patients (NSCLC), with a secondary aim of exploring the role of inflammation.

Detailed Description

A total of 240 cancer patients diagnosed with advanced NSCLC, referred to treatment with ICI will be enrolled in this prospective observational study. Patients will be assessed prior to initiation of treatment (baseline) and every third subsequent week, corresponding to each treatment cycle over a period of 18 weeks. Assessments will include questionnaires, sleep diaries, actigraphy, and blood and saliva samples to examine sleep, fatigue, psychological and physical symptoms, the sleep-wake-cycle, inflammation, and cortisol. Additionally, the patients will be asked to complete a reduced questionnaire every week within the 18 weeks period, to address weekly fluctuations in sleep quality, fatigue, and mood. Treatment response is assessed after 9 and 18 weeks.

Aims:

1. To explore possible associations between sleep and the clinical response to treatment with ICI.

2. To investigate the prevalence of sleep disturbance in patients with NSCLC during treatment with ICI.

3. To prospectively assess changes in sleep parameters over the course of treatment.

4. To examine associations between sleep parameters and fatigue, depression, anxiety, and inflammation.

5. To explore possible associations between sleep, fatigue, depression, inflammatory responses and the clinical response to treatment with ICIs.

Hypotheses:

Patients with high levels of sleep disturbance (insomnia severity) will experience 1) poorer clinical response to ICI, 2) more depressive symptoms, 3) higher levels of fatigue, 4) poorer overall health-related quality of life (HRQoL), 5) higher levels of inflammation.

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status
COMPLETED
Sex
All
Target Recruitment
49
Inclusion Criteria
  • Confirmed diagnosis of advanced non-small cell lung cancer
Exclusion Criteria
  • Insufficient Danish proficiency
  • Pre-existing confounding psychiatric illnesses

Study & Design

Study Type
OBSERVATIONAL
Study Design
Not specified
Primary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
Clinical response to treatmentChanges from baseline to 9 and 18 weeks after treatment initiation, respectively.

Radiological evaluation of the clinical response to treatment with ICI, according to RECIST criteria.

Secondary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
Actigraphy 3Baseline to 18 weeks after initiation of treatment.

Objective sleep outcome: Total sleep time (TST)

Perceived StressBaseline, and week 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 and 18, respectively, and follow-up 1, 2 and 3 years from baseline, respectively.

Changes in perceived stress as measured with The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). Total score ranges from 0 to 40, with higher scores indicating higher perceived stress.

Inflammatory response 1Baseline, and week 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 and 18, respectively.

CRP

Health-related quality of lifeBaseline, and week 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 and 18, respectively, and follow-up 1, 2 and 3 years from baseline, respectively.

Changes in health-related quality of life as measured with The European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer, Quality of Life questionnaire for cancer patients (EORTC QLQ-C30). The standardized raw score, ranges from 0 to 100; a higher score represents a higher ("better") level of functioning, or a higher ("worse") level of symptoms.

Actigraphy 4Baseline to 18 weeks after initiation of treatment.

Objective sleep outcome: Total time spent in bed (TIB)

Insomnia SeverityWeekly from baseline to 18 weeks after treatment initiation, and follow-up 1, 2 and 3 years from baseline, respectively.

Changes in insomnia severity as measured with The Insomnia Severity Index (ISI). Total score ranges from 0 to 28. Interpreted as follows: absence of insomnia (0-7); sub-threshold insomnia (8-14); moderate insomnia (15-21); and severe insomnia (22-28).

CortisolBaseline, and week 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 and 18, respectively.

Cortisol awakening response (CAR), and the diurnal cortisol slope (DCS)

Inflammatory response 3Baseline, and week 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 and 18, respectively.

TNF-a

Sleep diaryBaseline, and week 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 and 18, respectively.

Changes in Standard sleep metrics (nightly sleep onset latency (SOL), wakefulness after initial sleep onset (WASO), total sleep time (TST), total time spent in bed (TIB), sleep efficiency (SE).

FatigueBaseline, and week 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 and 18, respectively, and follow-up 1, 2 and 3 years from baseline, respectively.

Changes in subjective fatigue as measured with the Multidimensional Fatigue Symptom Inventory - Short Form (MFSI-SF). Subscales (general, physical, emotional, and mental fatigue) are summed and the vigor scale subtracted to create a fatigue total score, with higher scores indicating higher levels of fatigue.

Depressive symptomsBaseline, and week 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 and 18, respectively, and follow-up 1, 2 and 3 years from baseline, respectively.

Changes in depressive symptoms as measured with the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS®) Depression - Short Form 8a. Total raw score ranges from 8 to 40, with higher scores indicating greater severity of depression.

Disease specific health-related quality of lifeBaseline, and week 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 and 18, respectively, and follow-up 1, 2 and 3 years from baseline, respectively.

Changes in disease specific health-related quality of life as measured with The European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer, Quality of Life Lung Cancer Module (EORTC QLQ-LC29). The standardized raw score, ranges from 0 to 100; a high score for the symptom scales / single items represents a high level of symptomatology or problems.

Sickness behaviorBaseline, and week 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 and 18, respectively, and follow-up 1, 2 and 3 years from baseline, respectively.

Changes in subjective sickness behavior as measured with the Sickness Questionnaire (SicknessQ). Total score ranges from 0 to 30, with higher scores indicating more sickness behaviour.

Inflammatory response 5Baseline, and week 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 and 18, respectively.

White blood cell count.

Inflammatory response 2Baseline, and week 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 and 18, respectively.

IL-6

Inflammatory response 4Baseline, and week 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 and 18, respectively.

Se-Cortisol

Actigraphy 1Baseline to 18 weeks after initiation of treatment.

Objective sleep outcome. Nightly sleep onset latency (SOL)

Actigraphy 2Baseline to 18 weeks after initiation of treatment.

Objective sleep outcome: Wakefulness after initial sleep onset (WASO)

Actigraphy 6Baseline to 18 weeks after initiation of treatment.

Objective sleep outcome: Circadian activity rhythms.

Actigraphy 5Baseline to 18 weeks after initiation of treatment.

Objective sleep outcome: Sleep efficiency (SE, i.e., the percent of the time asleep out of amount of time spent in bed)

Disease status1, 2 and 3 years from treatment initiation (baseline).

Changes in disease status after treatment initiation with ICI. Changes are evaluated according to RECIST criteria.

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Aarhus University Hospital

🇩🇰

Aarhus, Midtjylland, Denmark

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