An interventional study of Healing Gardens content development/refinement activities and Healing Gardens serious game in Advanced Cancer, Cancer Pain and Chronic Pain, sponsored by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Not yet recruiting at 2 sites in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-09-17.
Sponsored by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute · Not applicable, Interventional, and Supportive care
Help build ClinicalTrials.gg — short surveys, remote interviews or testing, in your language. Take part →
Among 75 studies in Cancer Pain with a site in United States — 14 open to participants now, 20 under way, none of them phase 3. Cancer Pain · United States.
Among the 75 studies in Cancer Pain with a site in United States, this one is the 28th largest by planned enrollment of the 68 interventional ones that give a count, is the only one that started in 2027, is one of 35 with no phase, reaches primary completion later than 19 of the 19 other live ones, and was the 74th registered.
310 studies on the registry are indexed under Cancer Pain; 73 are open to participants now.
Browse Cancer Pain studies →14 of the 75 studies in Cancer Pain with a site in United States are open now. Recruiting first, the newest first:
Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center · Sites in United States
Ages 18+
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center · Sites in United States
Ages 18+
University of Virginia · Sites in United States
Ages 18–85
Medstar Health Research Institute · Sites in United States
Ages 18+
Medstar Health Research Institute · Sites in United States
Ages 18+
A study can be open while its sites in United States have not opened yet or have stopped. Only those recruiting at a site in United States →
Of the 43 Cancer Pain studies recruiting now, 31 (72%) set no upper age limit and 4 (9%) stop at 75 or younger; 4 take children under 18; none take healthy volunteers.
This study: 18 Years and older · all sexes · no healthy volunteers.
The full table on the hub →This tab as a report to print or save as PDF → With an account.
75 studies; the count open now beside each. This study's row is marked.
A study in two phases is counted once above. Listed by phase, each with its combined phases: Phase 1 10 · Phase 2 16 · Phase 3 9 · Phase 4 1
First in 2002; this study’s year is marked. 1 started in 2027.
By drug class, each counting the studies that test any of its medicines:
This study's planned enrollment of 46 is below the median of 62 across 235 interventional studies indexed under Cancer Pain.
Median enrollment 36 across the 68 interventional studies, 65 across the 7 observational. Of the 48 that completed or were terminated, 20 (42%) have results posted.
This tab as a report to print or save as PDF → With an account.
22 of 75 have an industry lead sponsor. The 10 most frequent:
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is the lead sponsor of 834 studies on the registry; 122 are open to participants now.
Of its 114 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 78 (68%) have results posted.
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has 2 studies filed under Cancer Pain — fewer than ten, so there is no comparison to draw.
10 of the studies in Cancer Pain with a site in United States that are under way reach primary completion within a year, 0 of them phase 3. Phase 3 first, then by date:
| Study | Primary completion |
|---|---|
| NCT06848348Dogwood Therapeutics Inc.Efficacy and Safety Study of Halneuron in the Treatment of Chemotherapy-Induced Neuropathic Pain | 2026-12 |
| NCT02522611National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)Periganglionic Resiniferatoxin for the Treatment of Intractable Pain Due to Cancer-induced Bone Pain | 2026-12-01 |
| NCT07318519Medstar Health Research InstituteCognitive Behavioral Theory-assisted Virtual Reality for Chronic CANcer Pain (VR-CAN) | 2026-12-01 |
| NCT04875286M.D. Anderson Cancer CenterPatient Reported Symptom Control With THC or CBD Use | 2027-02-02 |
| NCT04907643Cedars-Sinai Medical CenterVirtual Reality for GI Cancer Pain to Improve Patient Reported Outcomes | 2027-03-31 |
Add all 10 to your calendar (.ics) → With an account.
Among the 75 studies in Cancer Pain with a site in United States, from their registry updates:
This tab as a report to print or save as PDF → With an account.
This study is being done to determine the feasibility and acceptability of Healing Gardens, a standalone mobile health serious game designed to deliver pain-CBT and cancer pain education to help patients with advanced cancer manage chronic pain.
This is a single-site, interventional feasibility/pilot study evaluating Healing Gardens, a technology-based serious game intervention designed to deliver pain-CBT and cancer pain education for patients with advanced cancer and chronic pain. The study is intended to refine the intervention and establish its initial feasibility, acceptability, and usability through Cohort A content refinement/user acceptability testing and Cohort B pre-pilot testing.
Study procedures include screening and recruitment from DFCI outpatient oncology and palliative care clinics and DFCI satellite clinics at South Shore Health; baseline assessments; medical record abstraction; qualitative interviews and optional focus group/community advisory board activities for Cohort A; usability and acceptability surveys for both cohorts; and, for Cohort B, at-home use of the Healing Gardens game for up to 12 weeks with study contacts to address technical issues and complete end-of-study assessments. Study procedures may be conducted in person, by phone, or through secure HIPAA-compliant video platforms.
It is expected that up to 46 participants will take part in this study, including up to 25 participants in Cohort A and up to 21 participants in Cohort B.
Participation length varies by cohort. Cohort A participants will complete a 30-60 minute interview/user acceptability testing session and may optionally participate in community advisory board meetings up to twice monthly during Year 1. Cohort B participants will test the game at home for up to 12 weeks and complete baseline and end-of-study assessments and a 30-60 minute semi-structured interview. Overall subject accrual and participation are expected to occur over approximately 29 months. There is no long-term follow-up for this study.
This is a DF/HCC PI-sponsored study with funding/support listed from Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center and the National Cancer Institute/NIH/DHHS (R34CA308746, pending).
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.
Exclusion Criteria:
Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Cancer that has spread from where it began to other parts of the body. “Metastatic” cancer is cancer that has spread this way.
Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.
Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.
Metastases
Cancer that has spread from where it began to other parts of the body. “Metastatic” cancer is cancer that has spread this way.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Cancer (malignancy)
Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.
Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Participants complete a baseline assessment, a semi-structured interview for content development and refinement and/or optional focus groups, and usability/acceptability surveys.
Behavioral: Healing Gardens content development/refinement activities
Participants complete a baseline assessment, at-home testing of the Healing Gardens game for up to 12 weeks, a semi-structured debriefing interview, and end-of-intervention surveys.
Behavioral: Healing Gardens serious game
Participant feedback activities used to optimize the Healing Gardens serious game and related patient-facing content.
A story-led mHealth serious game delivering pain-CBT and cancer pain education, including pain psychoeducation, pain coping skills, cognitive restructuring, and safe/effective opioid use content.
Mean Score of Acceptability E-Scale
Acceptability E-scale is a 6-item self-reported measure of participant acceptability of the intervention. Each item is rated on a 5-point Likert scale, yielding a total score ranging from 6 to 30, with higher scores indicating greater acceptability of the intervention. The intervention will be considered acceptable if the mean score exceeds 24 out of 30. (Tariman et al., Appl Nurs Res 2011)
Time frame: At completion of the participant's game testing period (up to 12 weeks)
Mean Score of System Usability Survey (SUS)
SUS is a 10-item questionnaire used to assess the usability of the intervention. SUS is scored on a scale 0-100 with higher scores representing better acceptability. A score of 75 or higher is deemed acceptable.
Time frame: At completion of the participant's game testing period (up to 12 weeks)
Module Completion Rate
Module completion rate is defined as the proportion of participants who complete at least 75% of intervention modules (4 of 5 modules).
Time frame: At completion of the participant's game testing period (up to 12 weeks)
Recruitment Success Rate
Recruitment success rate is defined as the proportion of months during the enrollment period in which at least 8 participants provided informed consent.
Time frame: During the 12-month enrollment period beginning in Year 2 of the study.
Retention Rate
Retention rate is defined as the proportion of participants who complete the follow-up assessments and provide study data.
Time frame: At completion of the participant's game testing period (up to 12 weeks after enrollment, with enrollment beginning in Year 2).
Plan to share: Yes — The Harvard Cancer Consortium encourages and supports the responsible and ethical sharing of data from clinical trials. De-identified participant data from the final research dataset used in the published manuscript may only be shared under the terms of a Data Use Agreement. Requests may be directed to: [contact information for Sponsor Investigator or designee]. The protocol and statistical analysis plan will be made available on Clinicaltrials.gov only as required by federal regulation or as a condition of awards and agreements supporting the research.
Supporting information: Study protocol, Statistical analysis plan
Time frame: Data can be shared no earlier than 1 year following the date of publication
Access criteria: Contact the Belfer office for Dana -Farber Innovations (BODFI) at innovations@dfci.harvard.edu
No publications or documents are linked to this record.
Start is estimated for Feb 2027; primary completion for Jun 2030, 39 months later.
Of 72 non-industry interventional studies with no phase under Cancer Pain, half reached primary completion within 17 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 10 and three quarters within 40. This study's planned 39 months is above that.
Counting every sponsor, half of 75 studies reached it within 18 months; a quarter within 10 and three quarters within 40.
How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.
This study is not yet recruiting, as verified in Sep 2026. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
Get an email when the registry record changes — status, dates, results — or when someone posts here.
Sign in to followQuestions and observations about this study, from anyone following it. Not medical advice, and not a channel to the study team — their contact details are on the registry record.
Sign in to join the discussion. Reading takes no account; posting does. You choose a display name, and a pseudonym is the default.
Nothing here yet. If you are running this trial, taking part in it, or weighing whether to, this is the place to say so.
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute →