PSYCHO-EDUCATIONAL AND REHABILITATIVE INTERVENTION FOR CANCER CACHEXIA (PRICC)

PSYCHO-EDUCATIONAL AND REHABILITATIVE INTERVENTION FOR THE ONCOLOGICAL PATIENT WITH CACHEXIA AND HIS CAREGIVER: A FEASIBILITY STUDY

Half of all cancer patients experience cachexia, with the prevalence rising above 80% in the last weeks of life. The cancer cachexia is a complex relational experience which involves the dyads patients-families. There are no studies on psychosocial interventions on dyads associated with rehabilitative interventions, to support more functional relationships to the management of cancer cachexia.

Primary objective: to evaluate the feasibility of a psycho-educational intervention combined with a physiotherapy intervention on the dyads. Secondary objective: improvement of the Quality of Life of dyads, acceptability of the intervention, adherence to each of the two components.

Methods: non-pharmacological interventional perspective, mixed-method study, addressed to a consecutive 30 cancer patients with cachexia and irreversible cachexia and their caregivers assisted by Hospital Palliative Care Unit.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Age of 18 years or older
• Good command of the Italian language
• Written informed consent
• Histologically confirmed tumor diagnosis
• Presence of irreversible cachexia and cachexia (ESPEN3-5 guidelines, MUST calculation)
• Patients who have identified a caregiver
• Patients and family members are informed of the diagnosis and the objectives of the therapies and who have reported awareness of the disease phase (evaluated by the palliative doctor).

Exclusion Criteria:

• Patients with prognosis less than three months to enable the rehabilitative intervention
• Presence of important mental disorder or dementia
• Severe sensory deficit
• Presence of diffuse bone metastases that put the patient at risk of fracture during rehabilitation exercise.