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Does a Peer Navigator Improve Quality of Life at Diagnosis for Women With Breast Cancer?
Not Recruiting
Trial ID: NCT00186602
Purpose
Women indicate the greatest needs for counseling at the time of initial diagnosis for primary
breast cancer. The time of initial diagnosis is also often the time of greatest need for
information for women and their families. However, this is the time when a woman, overwhelmed
by shock and trauma, is least likely to absorb information provided or seek new sources of
information. An informed peer navigator with carefully trained communication skills can judge
the level of information to disclose and pace that information in a way that can be easily
absorbed and understood. She will also provide support. WomenCARE, a well-established Santa
Cruz agency providing free support services for women with cancer, and the Psychosocial
Treatment Lab at Stanford therefore ask whether women newly diagnosed with breast cancer will
improve their quality of life by participating in a peer navigator program. WomenCARE's peer
navigators provide emotional support, good listening skills, and information on resources for
women just diagnosed with breast cancer. Having a peer counselor while a woman goes through
treatment may reduce the magnitude of distress or shorten its time course. It may also reduce
distress in family members, and improve relationships with medical personnel.
This study is designed to evaluate the effectiveness of a peer navigator program where a
woman newly diagnosed with breast cancer is carefully matched for 3 to 6 months after
diagnosis with a trained volunteer who is herself a breast cancer survivor. Navigators and
Sojourners (newly diagnosed women) are matched on things that are important to them. Women
often want to be matched on the type of surgery or treatment they have received. We assign
half of the women (by a process similar to a coin toss) to our peer navigator program and
half to a group that receives standard medical care but no peer navigator. In this way we can
compare the groups to see whether those matched with a peer navigator have better quality of
life over the 3 to 6 month period. All women who join our study, regardless of the group to
which they are assigned, get an extra consultation with a nurse specialist at a local
hospital. In this consultation, the nurse reviews the cancer resources available to the woman
in Santa Cruz County. This meeting is tailored to the woman's individual diagnosis and
situation.
Official Title
Does a Peer Navigator Improve Quality of Life at Diagnosis?
Stanford Investigator(s)
David Spiegel
Jack, Lulu and Sam Willson Professor of Medicine
Eligibility
Inclusion Criteria:
women within 2 months of diagnosis of breast cancer can read English within the catchment
area of Watsonville and Santa Cruz California -
Exclusion Criteria:
women who have previously had a peer navigator intervention women who have a chronic
history of hospitalization for psychiatric reason
-
Intervention(s):
behavioral: Peer counseling
Not Recruiting
Contact Information
Stanford University
School of Medicine
300 Pasteur Drive
Stanford,
CA
94305