Initial Feasibility and Acceptability of Cancer Pain 101: An Interdisciplinary, Single-Session, Telehealth...

Patients with cancer have limited access to comprehensive pain treatment. We developed a 90-min, single-session, telehealth, interdisciplinary intervention that combines cancer-specific medical education and behavioral pain treatment. We evaluated the intervention's preliminary feasibility and acceptability for patients with cancer-related pain.

Adults with cancer-related pain (≥ 4/10, average pain) who are receiving cancer treatment (< 3 months) self-enrolled or were recruited from the Stephenson Cancer Center (SCC) in Oklahoma. Patients completed a baseline survey and attended the 90-min group-based, Zoom-delivered telehealth intervention. They completed post-intervention, 2-week, and 4-week follow-up assessments and an optional debriefing interview. The feasibility benchmark was ≥ 70% attendance and 80% of acceptability items rated ≥ 4/5.

Seventy participants (67.5% female; mean age = 52.5 years; 25% rural-dwelling) enrolled. Forty of 70 (57%) attended the intervention. Of those, 95% completed the post-intervention survey, and 90% and 95% completed the 2-week and 4-week follow-ups, respectively. Participants reported high acceptability, understandability (97%), and relevance (90%). Most (80%) would recommend the class to others. Qualitative feedback highlighted reduced helplessness and fear regarding opioid use, adoption of behavioral pain management strategies, and appreciation for the convenience of telehealth. Exploratory analyses showed significant reductions in pain intensity (mean difference [MD] = 1.27, p = 0.001), pain interference (MD = 5.48, p = 0.017), pain catastrophizing (MD = 6.0, p = 0.003), sleep disturbance (MD = 3.64, p = 0.004), and depression (MD = 3.97, p = 0.018) at 4 weeks.

While attendance was below feasibility benchmarks, this interdisciplinary, telehealth intervention was acceptable and improved self-reported cancer pain management. Further research will identify barriers to improve attendance, and determine the optimal timing within the cancer trajectory to deliver pain self-management content. Randomized controlled trials are needed to assess intervention efficacy on patient outcomes.