Grant Number:	5U34CA283478-02 Interpret this number
Primary Investigator:	Nightingale, Chandylen
Organization:	Wake Forest University Health Sciences
Project Title:	Multi-Site Community Oncology Planning for the Connect Intervention Targeting Lung Cancer Caregivers
Fiscal Year:	2024

Project Summary Our team has demonstrated availability of evidence-based supportive care services in community oncology to support informal (unpaid/ family) caregivers in caring for themselves and their care recipient undergoing cancer treatment (e.g., psychosocial support, self-care/ wellness classes, medical task training), but connection to these services is abysmal. A scalable and systematic process is critically needed to identify caregiver needs and connect caregivers with services. This may be especially valuable for lung cancer caregivers who report exceptional supportive care needs and high levels of caregiver burden. We previously demonstrated strong feasibility and acceptability of Caregiver Oncology Needs Evaluation Tool (CONNECT) in a pilot randomized clinical trial with 40 lung cancer caregivers at one academic medical center. We also observed significant improvements in caregiver burden and a clinically significant decrease in depression in the intervention group relative to control group. We propose in this next step of multi-site intervention planning, to also include navigation to address barriers that may hamper caregiver supportive care use. The overall goal of this program of research is to develop innovative and scalable programs to improve supportive care delivery for cancer caregivers in the community. In this application, we propose to gather essential data for a future multi-site efficacy trial of CONNECT in collaboration with the Wake Forest NCI Community Oncology Research Program Research Base (WF NCORP RB) and key stakeholders. For Aim 1, we will survey NCORP sites to determine outpatient oncology practice (N=60) interest and capacity to test the CONNECT Intervention across the broad NCORP network. For Aim 2 and Aim 3, we will conduct a multi-site randomized pilot trial. For Aim 2, we will assess the multi-site feasibility (accrual, participation, and retention) of the CONNECT Intervention enrolling 120 lung cancer caregiver-patient dyads (CONNECT, n=40; Standard Care, n=40; Generic Resource List, n=40) with the goal of informing methods for the future trial. For Aim 3, we will obtain preliminary data on site training needs, time needed for site participation, and communication processes between participating sites and study personnel to optimize multi-site intervention delivery in the future fully powered trial. Pending demonstration of feasibility, we will conduct a future fully powered efficacy trial using the NCORP network.