A Guided Internet-delivered Individually-tailored ACT-influenced CBT Intervention to Improve Psychosocial Outcomes in Breast Cancer

Background: Breast Cancer (BC) ranks as the most frequent and lethal cancer among women, in Portugal. However, advances in cancer detection and treatment contributed to a steady and significant increase in survival over the past years, and 5-year age-standardized relative survival is currently estimated to be 83,4%. This increase translates into a high and growing number of BC survivors, with a considerable proportion of these patients experiencing sequelae of treatment and late effects that can occur immediately to several years after primary treatment ends. Anxiety, depression, fear of recurrence, existential related issues, fatigue, pain, physical and cognitive impairment, tailored information needs, and sexual dysfunction have been reported as the most common unmet support care needs experienced by these women. The answer to these unmet support care needs relies, in part, on delivering comprehensive, highly coordinated, patient-centred care. However, operationalizing such care may prove difficult in a context of competing priorities and constrained health and social care budgets. In this context, connected health, particularly internet-delivered interventions, can provide remarkable opportunities in overcoming the aforementioned constraints, as presenting an effective and innovative healthcare delivery model capable of improving care coordination and providing access to efficacious, cost-efficient and convenient survivorship care. Nevertheless, research focusing on this field and aiming at improving survivors´ psychosocial needs is scarce and its practical implementation is limited. Objectives: The objectives of this investigation are: studying BC patients´ and healthcare providers' attitudes towards internet-delivered interventions; exploring breast cancer patients´ unmet support care needs and; determining the acceptability, feasibility, effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of iACT-BC, a guided internet-delivered individually-tailored Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)-influenced cognitive behavioural intervention designed to improve psychosocial outcomes in BC survivors when compared to treatment as usual (TAU) in a waiting list control group (WLC). The primary outcomes in this research are anxiety and depression. Secondary outcomes include psychological flexibility, fatigue, insomnia, sexual dysfunction and Health Related Quality of Life (HRQoL). Hypotheses: We hypothesize that participants in the intervention group will have improved anxiety, depression, psychological flexibility, fatigue, insomnia, sexual dysfunction and HRQoL, when compared to a WLC. Methods: A multimethod research design will be applied and two consecutive studies will be performed: Study 1 - Population characterization study and Study 2 - Efficacy and cost-effectiveness study. Study 1 will explore participants´ attitudes towards internet-delivered interventions as well as, BC patients' psychosocial unmet support needs by adopting an exploratory cross-sectional study design. Study 2 will investigate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of iACT-BC in BC survivors, by implementing a two-arm, parallel, open label, multicentre, pragmatic, waiting list randomized controlled trial. A Pilot study, mirroring the conditions applied in Study 2 should be performed in order to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of iACT-BC. Results from this Pilot study should be appraised and inform execution of Study 2 Ethical approval: This study will soon be submitted to evaluation by CNPD and local ethic committees. Authorization to run the study is expected to be received until January 2018. Expected Results: It is anticipated that iACT-BC will show to be an effective and cost-effective program in improving psychosocial outcomes such as anxiety, depression, psychological flexibility, fatigue, insomnia, sexual dysfunction and HRQoL in BC survivors, as opposing to a WLC under TAU. The results of this research will be published in accordance with CONSORT 2010 and CONSORT-EHEALTH guidelines and should be available for publication in February 2020. Keywords: Breast Cancer; Survivors; Internet intervention; Psychosocial intervention; Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT); Randomized controlled trial protocol.