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RecruitingNCT07428278ROCKSUpdated Oct 8, 2026

Resilience-Building for Advance Care Planning

An interventional study of ROCKS and Usual Care in Advanced Cancer and End of Life, sponsored by University of Illinois at Chicago. Recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 80 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-10-08.

Sponsored by University of Illinois at Chicago · Not applicable, Interventional, and Supportive care

From the registry’s dates

  • Started Jun 2026; still recruiting 5 months later.
Updated Oct 8, 2026Start date movedGo to Updates ↓
Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
152
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
18 Years to 80 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

The aims of this study are to (1) assess the feasibility, acceptability, and usability of the ROCKS intervention among patients with advanced cancer and their family caregivers through a randomized controlled trial in a cancer center setting; (2) evaluate the preliminary efficacy of ROCKS, as compared to usual care, on changes in completion of advance directives; and (3) explore the dyadic effects of resilience on self-efficacy, optimism, dyadic communication and coping, anxiety, and depression using an actor-partner interdependence model.

Read the detailed description

Patients with advanced cancer have not fully benefited from advance care planning due to the high levels of anxiety and depression experienced and other barriers that affect their appraisals and coping. Despite the protective effects of resilience, there have been few clinical trials improving the resilience skills of patients with advanced cancer and their family caregivers to help initiate advance care planning discussions and sustain engagement. This research evaluates the impact of a web-based resilience-building intervention called ROCKS on enhancing the completion of advance directives, as well as improving resilience, coping, anxiety, and depression among patients with advanced cancer and their family caregivers.

02

Conditions studied

  • Advanced Cancer
  • End of Life

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Keywords

  • Resilience
  • Advance Care Planning
03

In context

Death

456 studies on the registry are indexed under Death; 86 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 152 is close to the median of 163 across 210 interventional studies indexed under Death.

Browse Death studies →

Lead sponsor

University of Illinois at Chicago is the lead sponsor of 506 studies on the registry; 120 are open to participants now.

Of its 32 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 19 (59%) have results posted.

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Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years to 80 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  • Eligible patients will (1) be ≥ 18 years of age; (2) be diagnosed with stage 3 or 4 cancer; and (3) have a family caregiver who is willing to participate.
  • Eligible family caregivers will be ≥ 18 years of age. All participants must be able to read, write, and speak English with minimal assistance from others and have access to the internet on a smartphone, laptop, or computer.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Patient participants will be ineligible if they have (1) a Short Portable Mental Status Questionnaire (SPMSQ) score \< 8; or (2) have completed any form of advance directive.
05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Supportive care
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Triple (Care provider, Investigator, Outcomes assessor)
Enrollment
152 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    ROCKS

    Participants assigned to this arm will receive a web-based resilience-building intervention.

    Behavioral: ROCKS

  • Active comparator
    Usual Care

    Participants assigned to this arm will receive an advance directive called Five Wishes.

    Behavioral: Usual Care

Interventions

  • BehavioralROCKS

    The intervention will be provided to participants to strengthen optimism, communication skills, knowledge, and self-efficacy to support patients and family caregivers in engaging in advance care planning discussions.

  • BehavioralUsual Care

    An advance directive called Five Wishes will be provided to participants to increase their knowledge about advance care planning.

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Completion of advance directives

    Completion of Five Wishes

    Time frame: Week 8

Secondary outcomes

  1. Resilience

    Assessed using the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (Range: 0-100; higher scores indicate a greater level of resilience)

    Time frame: Week 8

  2. Optimism

    Assessed using the Revised Compound Psychological Capital Scale (Range: 3-18; higher scores indicate a greater level of optimism)

    Time frame: Week 8

  3. Dyadic communication and coping

    Assessed using the Dyadic Coping Inventory (Range: 35-175; higher scores indicate greater perceived communication and dyadic coping)

    Time frame: Week 8

  4. Knowledge

    Assessed using the Advance Care Planning Engagement Survey (Range: 2-10; Higher scores indicate a greater knowledge of advance care planning)

    Time frame: Week 8

  5. Self-efficacy

    Assessed using the Advance Care Planning Engagement Survey (Range: 12-50; Higher scores indicate greater self-efficacy in advance care planning)

    Time frame: Week 8

  6. Anxiety

    Assessed using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (Range: 0-21; Higher scores indicate higher levels of anxiety)

    Time frame: Week 8

  7. Depression

    Assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (Range: 0-27; Higher scores indicate higher levels of depression)

    Time frame: Week 8

07

Study locations

1 of 1 sites recruiting
08

Timeline

1 registry update since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reachedDate before it movedWhere the date was before it movedSimilar studies: half by the dot; the band is the middle halfHalf of similar studies reached it by the dot; the band is the middle half, from a quarter to three quarters

Started Jun 2026 (actual). Primary completion is estimated for May 2028, 23 months after the start.

Of 105 non-industry interventional studies with no phase under Death, half reached primary completion within 24 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 14 and three quarters within 48. This study's planned 23 months is close to that.

Counting every sponsor, half of 109 studies reached it within 24 months; a quarter within 14 and three quarters within 48.

Start moved once since we started tracking on Sep 25, 2026: May 2026 → Jun 2026, on Oct 8, 2026.

Earlier changes are on the record history on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
Feb 16, 2026
First posted
Feb 23, 2026
StartActual
Jun 9, 2026was May 2026
Primary completionEst.
May 31, 2028
CompletionEst.
Jul 31, 2028
Last update
Oct 8, 2026
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Primary completion.
When the last participant was examined or treated to collect data for the study's main question, its primary outcome. A study that stopped early gives the date its data collection stopped.
Completion.
When the last participant's last visit took place, for every outcome, secondary ones and side effects included: the end of the study. Often later than primary completion, sometimes the same day.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
Start date
May 28, 2026→Jun 9, 2026
Oct 8, 2026
Secondary outcomes
1 description edited
What changed in the outcomes
  • DescriptionOptimism: how it is measured was reworded
Oct 8, 2026
Show all 1 update
  1. Oct 8, 2026
    Start date May 28, 2026→Jun 9, 2026
    Secondary outcomes 1 description edited
    What changed in the outcomes
    • DescriptionOptimism: how it is measured was reworded

From the registry record's own update history. This site started tracking changes on Sep 25, 2026; for anything earlier, see the record history on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

09

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT07428278
Lead sponsor
University of Illinois at Chicago
Collaborators
National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR)
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Feb 23, 2026
Start date
Jun 9, 2026
Primary completion
May 31, 2028 (estimated)
Completion
Jul 31, 2028 (estimated)
Last update
Oct 8, 2026

Study contacts

Li-Ting Longcoy
Contact
liting@uic.edu
312-996-3024

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
Yes
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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