Trial reportBMC cancer2017
The feasibility and benefit of a brief psychosocial intervention in addition to early palliative care in patients with advanced cancer to reduce depressive symptoms: a pilot randomized controlled clinical trial.
Trial report in BMC cancer, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT02133274 (A Phase II Randomized Controlled Trial to Evaluate a Brief Psychosocial Intervention Together With Early Palliative Care in Reducing Depressive Symptoms of Patients With Advanced Cancer Starting First Line Palliative Chemotherapy), which is not on this map. Cited by 19 papers, 7 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
A Phase II Randomized Controlled Trial to Evaluate a Brief Psychosocial Intervention Together With Early Palliative Care in Reducing Depressive Symptoms of Patients With Advanced Cancer Starting First Line Palliative Chemotherapy
Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 36 citations in OpenAlex.
- Psychosocial interventions and health-related quality of life in adults with incurable cancer: systematic review.BMJ supportive & palliative care · 2025Pooled it
- The benefits of early palliative care on psychological well-being, functional status, and health-related quality of life among cancer patients and their caregivers: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC palliative care · 2025Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Palliative Care Interventions Effects on Psychological Distress: A Systematic Review & Meta-Analysis.Journal of pain and symptom management · 2023Pooled it
- A Systematic Review and Bayesian Network Meta-Analysis Investigating the Effectiveness of Psychological Short-Term Interventions in Inpatient Palliative Care Settings.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Pooled it
- Quality of life of cancer patients at palliative care units in developing countries: systematic review of the published literature.Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2021Pooled it
- The effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of hospital-based specialist palliative care for adults with advanced illness and their caregivers.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2020Pooled it
- Timing Matters: A Systematic Review of Early Versus Delayed Palliative Care in Advanced Cancer.Cancers · 2025Review
- Defining "early palliative care" for adults diagnosed with a life-limiting illness: a scoping review.BMC palliative care · 2025Article
- Palliative Care and Mental Health among Pancreatic Cancer Patients in the United States: An Examination of Service Utilization and Health Outcomes.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Evidence-Based Nonpharmacological Symptom Management of Palliative Care in Advanced and Metastatic Cancer Patients: A Systematic Review.Florence Nightingale journal of nursing · 2024Article
- What is an "early palliative care" intervention? A scoping review of controlled studies in oncology.Cancer medicine · 2023Article
- Development, implementation and evaluation a palliative care program for colorectal cancer patients: a mixed methods protocol study.BMC cancer · 2022Article
- Review
- Models of Palliative Care Delivery for Patients With Cancer.Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology · 2020Review
- Cultural Adaptation and Open Pilot of Meaning-Centered Psychotherapy for Puerto Rican Patients with Advanced Cancer.Science journal of education · 2020Article
- Palliative Cancer Care in the Outpatient Setting: Which Model Works Best?Current treatment options in oncology · 2019Review
- Impact of Early Palliative Care to Improve Quality of Life of Advanced Cancer Patients: A Meta-Analysis of Randomised Controlled Trials.Indian journal of palliative careReview
- Challanges of Meeting the Palliative Care Needs of Colorectal Cancer patients in Iran: A Qualitative Research.Iranian journal of nursing and midwifery researchArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe aim of this study was to assess the feasibility and potential benefit of a brief psychosocial intervention based on cognitive-behavioral therapy performed in addition to early palliative care (PC) in the reduction of depressive symptoms among patients with advanced cancer.
methodsAn open-label randomized phase II clinical trial with two intervention arms and one control group. Patients with advanced cancer starting palliative chemotherapy and who met the selection criteria were included. The participants were randomly allocated to three arms: arm A, five weekly sessions of psychosocial intervention combined with early PC; arm B, early PC only; and arm C, standard cancer treatment. Feasibility was investigated by calculating rates (%) of inclusion, attrition, and contamination (% of patients from Arm C that received PC). Scores of depression (primary aim), anxiety, and quality of life were measured at baseline and 45, 90, 120, and 180 days after randomization.
resultsFrom the total of 613 screened patients (10.3% inclusion rate), 19, 22, and 22 patients were allocated to arms A, B, and C, respectively. Contamination and attrition rates (180 days) were 31.8% and 38.0%, respectively. No interaction between the arms and treatments were found. Regarding effect sizes, there was a moderate benefit in arm A over arms B and C in emotional functioning (-0.66 and -0.61, respectively) but a negative effect of arm A over arm C in depression (-0.74).
conclusionsFuture studies to be conducted with this population group need to revise the eligibility criteria and make them less restrictive. In addition, the need for arm C is questioned due to high contamination rate. The designed psychosocial intervention was not able to reduce depressive symptoms when combined with early PC. Further studies are warrant to evaluate the intervention on-demand and in subgroups of high risk of anxiety/depression.
trial registrationClinical Trials identifier NCT02133274 . Registered May 6, 2014.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.