Clinical Trials for Mesothelioma Patients—Electronic Tool to Record Cancer Symptoms: Disease Characteristics

Read about the primary disease characteristics for a current clinical trial being conducted on patients with advanced cancer or malignant mesothelioma using an electronic tool to record symptoms and disease characteristics. Please note: this information is provided by Weitz & Luxenberg for informational purposes only. This trial is currently only being conducted in Switzerland.

Disease characteristics:

• Diagnosis of advanced incurable cancer

• Symptomatic disease, defined as meeting = 1 of the following criteria: o Pain Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) = 3/10 and/or morphine equivalent daily dose of = 10 mg for = 3 days o Anorexia VAS = 3/10 and/or weight loss of = 2% in 2 months or = 5% in 6 months o Fatigue VAS = 3/10 and/or Karnofsky performance status < 70% o Depression or anxiety VAS = 3/10 and/or treatment with antidepressants for = 5 days and planned for = 1 month

• Receiving continuously, weekly, or biweekly palliative anticancer treatment meeting 1 of the following criteria: o At least 1 first-line treatment for any of the following:

Metastatic melanoma
Renal cell cancer
Pancreatic cancer
Biliary tract cancer
Mesothelioma
Prostate cancer (chemotherapy)

• Advanced glioblastoma o At least 1 second-line treatment for any of the following:

Extensive stage small cell lung cancer ? Stage IV non-small cell lung cancer
Colorectal cancer
Gastric cancer
Esophageal cancer
Bladder cancer
Sarcoma
Carcinoma of unknown primary o At least 1 third-line chemotherapy regimen for any of the following:
Metastatic breast cancer
Ovarian cancer

• Anticancer treatment must be given in an outpatient setting, not within a clinical trial, with weekly monitoring, and expected tumor response rate = 20% according to the literature

• No testicular cancer

• No hematological malignancies

• No primary brain tumors other than glioblastoma

• Physician characteristics: o No change to standard of care for symptom assessment or to major communication skills strategies within the past 3 months o Experienced in medical oncology (i.e., worked = 50% in clinical oncology within the past 24 months) o Likely to stay in the participating institution for the time required to treat = 5 study patients o Able to independently communicate with the patient about all aspects of cancer care o Able to independently perform immediate changes of interventions in patient care without the institutional requirement to counsel another colleague before prescribing (i.e., for symptom control) o Completed a basic communication skills course or equivalent training (i.e., familiar with communication skills)

Courtesy of ClinicalTrials.gov, a service of the U.S. National Institutes of Health