NCT06446115

Decreasing Chemotherapy Induced Distress Using Immersive Virtual Reality in Patients With Cancer

• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 70 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Case Comprehensive Cancer Center · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if the use of virtual reality during chemotherapy treatment helps participants achieve an improvement in distress, which may include unpleasant experience, anxiety, depression and/or pain. Participants will: * Be randomly assigned to one of two available groups (virtual reality or standard of care) * Participations will only be during one chemotherapy session. * Those assigned to virtual reality: * The research team will provide a virtual reality * The research team will provide guidance on how the headset works and will be available to assist with any questions or concerns. * Participants will also be able to choose different relaxing backgrounds depending on their preference. headset during the chemotherapy session for 15 to 30 minutes * Those assigned to the standard of care: * The research team will provide the participants with the opportunity to choose a preferred activity such as reading a book, watching television, etc.

Detailed description

In recent decades, new cancer cases have consistently risen. Participants diagnosed with cancer commonly face psychological symptoms including distress, anxiety, and depression in addition to physical symptoms (i.e., pain). Importantly, these symptoms might be exacerbated during chemotherapy sessions. New innovative technological strategies have been under development to control the symptoms and improve quality of life. Immersive virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that enables participants to interact with an artificial three-dimensional visual and auditory environment. VR could be an innovative intervention to relieve psychological symptoms associated with chemotherapy.

Conditions

• Malignant Neoplasm
• Cancer

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DEVICE	Virtual Reality	Virtual Reality Headset applied to the participants during chemotherapy session. Participants select their preferred virtual reality experience (i.e., nature videos, meditations, interactive applications, etc). Virtual reality (VR) by definition, is a simulated experience consisting of an experiential environment created by hardware and software technology capable of provoking sensations of real experiences. It can be further divided into 1) immersive; 2) semi-immersive; and 3) non-immersive. Immersive VR employs head-mounted display (HMD) system technology to separate users from their surroundings and engage in real-time with a three-dimensional environment generated by a computer.
OTHER	Preferred activity	Participants will engage in a preferred activity such as reading, watching television, coloring, etc. during chemotherapy.
OTHER	Questionnaires	Participants will be administered multiple pre and post intervention questionnaires including NCCN Distress thermometer, GAD-7 and CCVA.

Timeline

• Start date: 2024-11-05
• Primary completion: 2026-01-30
• Completion: 2026-01-30
• First posted: 2024-06-06
• Last updated: 2025-11-06

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States