Feasibility and preliminary outcomes from a pilot study of coping skills training for adolescent--young adult survivors of childhood cancer and their parents

Abstract

Uncertainty is a central feature of long-term childhood cancer survivorship during which time it principally has to do with late effects. Therefore, the purposes of this article are (a) to assess feasibility of a randomized clinical trial of a telephone-delivered coping skills training (CST) intervention in terms of recruitment, retention, and timeline, as well as the performance of the study measures; and (b) to demonstrate trends in change on outcomes within the context of a small pilot study. The results of this pilot study suggest that HEROS PLUS CST has clinical relevance and that in-person long-term follow-up plus telephone-delivered psychosocial care is a practical way to deliver integrated care to adolescent-young adult childhood cancer survivors and their parents.