The Stop Cancer PAIN Trial
cancer-related pain, cancer, cancer pain, pain, NRS, Cancer
CANCER, ADVANCED CANCER, SECONDARY, CANCER
This pragmatic, phase III, stepped-wedge, cluster randomised controlled trial investigated the effectiveness of screening and guidelines for pain with, versus without, implementation strategies for improving cancer pain.From August 2015 to June 2019, adults with cancer and pain presenting to six oncology and palliative care outpatient services across Australia were recruited to the Stop Cancer PAIN Trial [To be eligible, patients had to be, outpatients with a diagnosis of advanced cancer, the ability to self-complete the 0–10 numeric rating scale (NRS) for severity of worst and average pain, reporting a worst pain score of ≥5 (primary outcome) or ≥2 (secondary outcome) and sufficient proficiency in spoken English to complete the secondary outcome measures were eligible to participate in the study [De-identified pain screening data from The primary outcome was the proportion of participants initially reporting a worst pain score of ≥5 who experienced a clinically important improvement of ≥30% 1 week later. Secondary outcomes included mean average pain, quality of life, patient empowerment, and fidelity to the intervention, and were measured in all participants initially reporting a worst pain score of ≥2 at weeks one, two, and four. Overall, there was no statistical difference in pain-related outcomes; the implementation strategies were insufficient to improve pain-related outcomes for outpatients with cancer-related pain [