Impact of Group Psychological Interventions on Extracellular Vesicles in People Who Had Cancer

Summary

Background: There is some evidence demonstrating the effect of psychological interventions in improvements in health biological parameters. To best of our knowledge, no study had addressed the impact of any psychological intervention on extracellular vesicles. In addition, Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) and Emotion Focused Therapy for Cancer Recovery (EFT-CR) in the group have never been explored regarding extracellular vesicles and the effectiveness of these was not compared yet.

Objectives:

1. To explore and compare the effect of MBCT and EFT-CR on biological parameters and psychological variables in distressed people who have had breast, prostate and colorectal cancer;
2. In addition, we will explore the acceptability through recruitment and retention rates of MBCT and EFT-CR in group and evaluate whether these interventions are appropriate for a larger clinical trial.

Methods: The design of this study is a parallel randomized controlled trial. Participants will be randomized into MBCT, EFT-CR or usual care. Outcome measures will be assessed before, at the end of the intervention (8 weeks) and follow-ups (24 and 52 weeks from the baseline moment).

Hypotheses: The researchers expected that both interventions will have an effect on extracellular vesicles and other study biomarkers as well as improvements in psychological outcomes, compared to treatment as usual (TAU) group. Regarding the comparative effectiveness, we did not have evidence to hypothesize which one of the interventions will be superior in both biological (extracellular vesicles) and psychological outcomes.

Contribution for practice: The results of this preliminary study would permit to know if there are benefits of these psychological interventions on changes in extracellular vesicles and on psychological outcomes related to health. In addition, this study will permit to determine the acceptability of conducting a larger randomized controlled trial.

Conditions

• Cancer

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Mindfulness Based-Cognitive Therapy (MBCT)

MBCT is a program developed by Zindel Segal, Mark Williams and John Teasdale. During MBCT patients learn to decenter their negative thoughts and feelings, allowing the mind to move from an automatic thought pattern to conscious emotional processing. Mindfulness practices included in this program are breath awareness, body scan, sitting and walking meditation, and mindful yoga. The intervention will have the following structure: 8 weekly face-to-face meetings of 2 hours in a group format, daily home-based practice of learned skills, 4 hours of retreat/intensive group work after the fifth week, 6 months of home practice, 4 monthly consolidation face-to-face sessions.

BEHAVIORAL

Emotion Focused Therapy Group for Cancer Recovery (EFT-CR)

EFT-CR is an evidence-based approach to psychotherapy, which combines aspects of person-centered, gestalt and existential therapies with contemporary emotion theory and dialectical constructivism (Elliott et al, 2004, Rice \& Greenberg, 1984). On EFT-CR, therapist follows the client experience and guides the process, proposing therapeutic tasks when specific client behaviors occur. EFT-CR uses a set of emotion change principles which guide a process of emotional deepening process, from undifferentiated distress to secondary reactive emotions to primary maladaptive emotions to core pain and thence to primary adaptive emotions and emotional transformation (Elliott \& Greenberg 2016). The intervention will have the following structure: 8 weekly face-to-face meetings of 2 hours in a group format, daily home-based practice of learned skills, 4 hours of retreat/intensive group work after the fifth week, 6 months of home practice, 4 monthly consolidation face-to-face sessions.

OTHER

Treatment as usual (no intervention)

Treatment as Usual is the condition in which participants will follow the usual institutional intervention protocol for medical follow-up and identification, referral and intervention for people identified with significant distress difficulties.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Polytechnic Institute of Porto

  collaborator OTHER

• VTT Technical Research Centre, Finland

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Oulu

  collaborator OTHER

• Linnaeus University

  collaborator OTHER

• European Commission

  collaborator OTHER

• Instituto Portugues de Oncologia, Francisco Gentil, Porto

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Rui Henrique, PhD · IPO-Porto

• Carmen Jerónimo, PhD · IPO-Porto

• Eunice Silva, PhD · IPO-Porto

• Goreti Sales, PhD · ISEP-Biomark (Polytecnic Institute of Porto)

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

65 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2021-09-01

Primary Completion

2021-09-30

Completion

2021-09-30