E-MOSAIC Electronic Tool to Monitor Symptoms

You may be eligible if

• DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:
• Diagnosis of advanced incurable cancer
• Symptomatic disease, defined as meeting ≥ 1 of the following criteria:
• * Pain Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) ≥ 3/10 and/or morphine equivalent daily dose of ≥ 10 mg for ≥ 3 days
• * Anorexia VAS ≥ 3/10 and/or weight loss of ≥ 2% in 2 months or ≥ 5% in 6 months
• * Fatigue VAS ≥ 3/10 and/or Karnofsky performance status \< 70%
• * Depression or anxiety VAS ≥ 3/10 and/or treatment with antidepressants for ≥ 5 days and planned for ≥ 1 month
• Receiving continuously, weekly, or biweekly palliative anticancer treatment meeting 1 of the following criteria:
• * At least 1 first-line treatment for any of the following:
• * Metastatic melanoma
• * Renal cell cancer
• * Pancreatic cancer
• * Biliary tract cancer
• * Mesothelioma
• * Prostate cancer (chemotherapy)
• * Advanced glioblastoma
• * At least 1 second-line treatment for any of the following:
• * Extensive stage small cell lung cancer
• * Stage IV non-small cell lung cancer
• * Colorectal cancer
• * Gastric cancer
• * Esophageal cancer
• * Bladder cancer
• * Sarcoma
• * Carcinoma of unknown primary
• * At least 1 third-line chemotherapy regimen for any of the following:
• * Metastatic breast cancer
• * Ovarian cancer
• Anticancer treatment must be given in an outpatient setting, not within a clinical trial, with weekly monitoring, and expected tumor response rate ≤ 20% according to the literature
• No testicular cancer
• No hematological malignancies
• No primary brain tumors other than glioblastoma
• Physician characteristics:
• * No change to standard of care for symptom assessment or to major communication skills strategies within the past 3 months
• * Experienced in medical oncology (i.e., worked ≥ 50% in clinical oncology within the past 24 months)
• * Likely to stay in the participating institution for the time required to treat ≥ 5 study patients
• * Able to independently communicate with the patient about all aspects of cancer care
• * Able to independently perform immediate changes of interventions in patient care without the institutional requirement to counsel another colleague before prescribing (i.e., for symptom control)
• * Completed a basic communication skills course or equivalent training (i.e., familiar with communication skills)
• PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:
• Able to understand assessment instrument language
• Able to understand physician communication without difficulty (i.e., due to culture, language, speech)
• PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:
• See Disease Characteristics
• No concurrent participation in another clinical trial