MBCT for Cancer Patients in Follow-Up

International research shows that untreated or under treated pain among cancer patients after completion of therapy is a common problem with substantial negative impact on the patients' quality of life and mental and physical function.These challenges have increased interest in psychological pain therapy and among the available methods of psychological intervention, mindfulness-based interventions (MBI) are of particular interest. MBI appears to be particularly relevant for pain, as mindfulness focuses, through different meditation exercises, on concentrating attention on here-and-now experiences and supporting new ways of addressing physical sensations and emotional discomfort, characterized by greater acceptance and openness. MBI has been shown effective in treatment of nonmalignant chronic pain. . Patients seen by all four diagnosis teams at the Oncology Department at AUH are screened for pain (0-10 NRS) in connection with their final consultation with the oncologist. Patients with a pain score of ≥ 4 on one or more of the four pain dimensions questions receive a folder describing MBCT and the treatment plan and are encouraged to contact the MBCT team for more information and scheduling of an interview. If the patient, after initial information either by phone or after the first interview decline the offer to participate, but are willing to be contacted for the purpose of gathering more information about their reasons for not participating, we will send them a brief questionnaire concerning their pain and their reasons for choosing to decline the offer, to complete online. They are also asked to give their permission to collect the same information after three months. All data are collected and registered with REDCap, a high data security project administration system administered by Aarhus University's Clinical Trial Unit. The patients will participate in eight weekly two hour group sessions and will be asked to do an additional 45 minutes of daily training at home. The participants will be asked to record their home training to allow assessment of their adherence to the intervention. The program corresponds to the manualized MBCT program, but with adaptations that take into account the special needs of cancer patients, including somewhat shorter sessions, shorter yoga exercises, and the omission of the all-day session. The sessions include psychoeducation and formalized mindfulness exercises with focus on the participants' here-and-now experience of their pain. The aim of the present project is to evaluate the practical implementation of MBCT, with focus on: 1) the observed effects on pain (primary outcome parameter), 2) effects on quality-of-life (QoL) and on other cancer and cancer-treatment-related late effects associated with pain (secondary outcome parameter), 3) possible barriers for continued participation in the program (drop-out), 4) patient experience and satisfaction with the intervention and its organizational/practical implementation, 5) staff's experience of screening procedure and implementation, and 6) collection of data for use in the evaluation of effects, costs, and savings. For use in the evaluation, the patients complete questionnaires prior to the first session (T1), immediately after the last session (T2), and at a six-month follow-up (T3).