Feasibility of online managing cancer and living meaningfully (CALM) in Chinese patients with metastatic breast cancer: a pilot randomized control trial

Abstract Metastatic breast cancer could cause various psychological symptoms. Managing Cancer and Living Meaningfully (CALM) is a brief, manualized psychotherapy that has been validated for advanced cancer patients. We conducted a pilot randomized control trial (RCT) to verify the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of CALM therapy in this population. Patients who met the inclusion criteria were randomly assigned into CALM or Wait-list Control (WLC) groups. Patients in the CALM group received CALM therapy and usual care; patients in WLC group first received usual care and then underwent CALM therapy after completing all assessments. All patients were asked to complete three assessments: T0(baseline), T1(3 months), and T2(6 months). The primary outcomes was death anxiety; other outcomes were depression, distress, suicide ideation, attachment security, spiritual well-being and quality of life at the end of life. Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) and t-test were used for statistics analysis. Thirty-six patients were randomly assigned to either of the two groups, with 34 patients completing the three assessments. At six months, we found significant between group differences in suicide ideation, distress, and life completion between the CALM and WLC groups. At T2, patients in CALM group reported lower levels of depression (F = 5.016, p = 0.033, partial η 2 = 0.143), distress (F = 7.969, p = 0.010, partial η 2 = 0.257), attachment avoidance (F = 4.407, p = 0.044, partial η 2 = 0.128), and better sense of life completion (F = 5.493, p = 0.026, partial η 2 = 0.155) than patients in the WLC group. Compared with results of the T0 assessments, we found significant differences in socres for depression (T2&T0, t = − 2.689, p = 0.011, Cohen’s d = 0.940) and distress (T2&T0, t = − 2.453, p = 0.022, Cohen’s d = 0.965) between the two groups. CALM therapy was well received by the study population, and CALM therapy can reduce depression, distress, attachment avoidance while improving quality of life in Chinese metastatic breast cancer patients. A Phase III RCT was recommended to verify the impact of CALM therapy on psychological burden and survival in this population. Trial registration : This study is part of the “Preliminary application study for Managing Cancer and Living Meaningfully (CALM) therapy in Chinese advanced cancer patients” clinical trial, with the Trial Registration Number of ChiCTR1900023129 (13/05/2019) in the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR) website. ( https://www.chictr.org.cn/index.html ).