Comprehensive Palliative Care for Cancer Patients in Vietnam

Summary

There are exponential increases in cancer incidence and mortality worldwide and in Vietnam. Cancer affects patient's quality of life, which can be improved by palliative care. In Vietnam, due to a shortage in human resources for social workers, palliative care is mainly focused on medical aspect. A new comprehensive palliative care model, that provides multidisciplinary support including psychosocial support to patients, was developed. This research's objective is to evaluate the effectiveness of comprehensive palliative care (CPC) on improving the quality of life among cancer patients at a hospital in Vietnam.

This randomized control trial is performed among 100 advanced cancer patients at University Medical Center at Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam.The measurement tools include the Vietnamese Palliative Care Outcome Scale (VietPOS), the 5-level EQ-5D (EQ-5D-5L), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI). Data collection has been conducting through face-to-face interviews three times: baseline, week 3, and week 6. Paired t-test (or Wilcoxon Rank sum test) and Student-t-test (or Mann -Whitney U test) will be used to evaluate and compare changes in quality of life and psychological distress within and between groups. Intention- to - treat analysis is used in the study.

This is the first research that study the effectiveness of a palliative care psychosocial intervention on cancer patients in Vietnam. The result can be used to advocate for multidisciplinary palliative care in Vietnam.

Conditions

• Advanced Cancer
• Psychological Distress
• Quality of Life

Interventions

OTHER

Comprehensive palliative care

CPC is multidisciplinary inpatient care that aims to respond to patients' suffering in many aspects: physical, psychological, social, and spiritual. It is basically a standard palliative care service in Vietnam with additional psychosocial and spiritual support with a multidisciplinary approach.

OTHER

Standard of care

Patients who are randomized to the control group will receive the standard palliative care in Vietnam. They can assess to the same palliative care for their physical symptoms as patients in the intervention group do. They can also access psychosocial and spiritual support from the resources that available for them before entering to the study. If they request for social or financial support, their care team can reach out to the social work departments. Patients who are in need can receive mental health care from psychiatrists from the psychiatrist unit at UMC.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University Medical Center Ho Chi Minh City (UMC)

  collaborator OTHER

• Vietnam Palliative Health Care Society

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Quynh Truong, SW, MPH · Vietnam Palliative Health Care Society

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

70 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2020-05-07

Primary Completion

2021-04-30

Completion

2021-04-30

Countries

• Vietnam

Study Locations