Increasing Cardiomyopathy Screening in At-Risk Adult Survivors of Pediatric Malignancies: A Randomized Controlled Trial

What is it about?

This longitudinal clinical trial tested a 2-tiered tailored intervention designed to inform childhood cancer survivors at risk for cardiomyopathy about their individual cardiomyopathy risk and follow-up recommendations, and provided motivational support for cardiomyopathy screening. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either 1) a mailed survivorship care plan (SCP) with recommendations for cardiomyopathy screening (standard care) or 2) standard care plus an advanced practice nursing (APN) telephone counseling intervention. Study results demonstrated that the addition of telephone counseling to a SCP with cardiac health screening recommendations increased cardiomyopathy screening with at-risk survivors in the APN group being more than two times likely than those in the control group to complete the recommended screening (RR, 2.31; 95% CI, 1.74 to 3.07).

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Why is it important?

The study describes an effective method of intervention that can be adapted to support other types of health-protective screening behaviors of childhood cancer survivors who have a higher risk of chronic disease as they age and who may benefit from early diagnosis and preventive/remedial interventions.