Using an End-of-life Conversation Game to Engage Patients With Cancer in Advance Care Planning: Phase 2

Summary

The goal of this clinical trial is to explore feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of end-of-life conversation game "Hello" as a tool to help individuals with various solid cancer types (including: breast, gastro-intestinal, lung, melanoma, head and neck, and/or genito-urinary cancers) treated at Penn State Health clinics and their loved ones perform advance care planning (ACP). The main questions it aims to answer are:

What modifications and/or adaptations are necessary to Hello for use in cancer populations?

What impact does participation in Hello event have on health care usage (e.g., number of hospitalizations, ICU admissions, emergency department visits, etc.)? How feasible is it to randomize participants to play either Hello for Cancer or Table Topics?

Participants will:

* Complete pre-game questionnaires
* Play either Hello or Table Topics game
* Complete post-game questionnaires
* Participate in a focus group
* Complete a telephone follow up interview 1-4 months after their event

This study is a continuation of NCT06028152.

Conditions

• Breast Cancer
• Lung Cancer
• Genito-Urinary Cancer
• Colorectal Cancer
• Gastric Cancer
• Pancreatic Cancer
• Liver Cancer
• Head and Neck Cancer
• Melanoma

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Hello for Cancer game

To play 'Hello', players are provided 32 open-ended questions in a prearranged order and an equal number of game chips. A player reads aloud the first question. Players then individually write down their answers, and take turns sharing answers with the group (players can opt to pass). Players control how long they share, what they share, and when they are ready to proceed to the next question. During the conversation, players may choose to acknowledge others for a particularly thoughtful, poignant, or even funny comment by giving them a chip. A simple pre-game coin flip determines whether the player with the most chips 'wins' the game ('heads'), or the player with the least amount of chips wins the game ('tails'). The questions used in Hello for Cancer were modified from the original Hello game based on the results of phase 1 of testing this game in cancer populations. The modifications made to the game will be assessed for acceptability during this study.

OTHER

Table Topics game

To play Table Topics, players are provided a deck of cards that have a variety of general conversation starter questions. The group takes turns selecting a card and reading it to the group for the group to answer. During the conversation, players may choose to acknowledge others for a particularly thoughtful, poignant, or even funny comment by giving them a chip. A simple pre-game coin flip determines whether the player with the most chips 'wins' the game ('heads'), or the player with the least amount of chips wins the game ('tails').

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Milton S. Hershey Medical Center

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Lauren Van Scoy, MD · Penn State College of Medicine

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2024-06-27

Primary Completion

2026-12-31

Completion

2026-12-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations