Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation and Cognitive Training for Depressive Symptomatology Related to Breast Cancer (ONCODEP)
NCT ID: NCT06053775
Last Updated: 2025-07-20
Study Results
The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.
Basic Information
Get a concise snapshot of the trial, including recruitment status, study phase, enrollment targets, and key timeline milestones.
ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING
NA
82 participants
INTERVENTIONAL
2023-09-27
2025-09-30
Brief Summary
Review the sponsor-provided synopsis that highlights what the study is about and why it is being conducted.
* To analyze the efficacy and feasibility of the intervention to treat depressive symptomatology.
* To analyze the efficacy and feasibility of the intervention to treat cognitive decline.
* To evaluate the medium and long-term effects (1, 3 and 6 months) of intervention.
An OCT program and a portable wireless tDCS/tACS system will be used to perform the intervention at home. Patients will be divided into four treatment groups, depending on whether they will receive the OCT applied independently or combined with tDCS/tACS active or sham.
In addition, saliva samples will be collected to identify bomarkers predictive of treatment efficacy.
Related Clinical Trials
Explore similar clinical trials based on study characteristics and research focus.
A Study of Mental Health Care in People With Cancer
NCT06037954
Developing and Testing an Online Pathway From Screening to Treatment for Depression in Oncology: iPath*D (Aim 2)
NCT05302375
Cognitive and Mood Assessment Data in Major Depressive Disorder Using Digital Wearable Technology
NCT03067506
DBS for Depression
NCT06096207
Treatment of Depressive Symptoms in Breast Cancer Patients: Comparison of Cognitive Therapy and Bright Light Therapy
NCT01637103
Detailed Description
Dive into the extended narrative that explains the scientific background, objectives, and procedures in greater depth.
Oncology Units of the Galician Health Service will be contacted for recruitment. Oncologists will review whether patients meet the inclusion criteria and none of the exclusion criteria. If so, patients will be given an information flyer and will contact the research team to receive more information and, if they wish, to participate in the study. If patients are interested in participating, researchers will contact them to confirm the inclusion/exclusion criteria and participants will be invited to the first face-to-face session. In this session, informed consent will be signed, pre-treatment neuropsychological assessment will be performed, medical data will be reviewed, and a saliva sample will be collected. After collecting this data, the first treatment session will take place in the presence of the researcher. The type of treatment each patient will receive (OCT, tDCS active+ OCT, tACS active+ OCT or sham neurostimulation+ OCT. ) will be chosen randomly, using a randomization list.
After that, each patient will undergo 14 sessions, daily, at home. The tES devices (Soterix Medical Inc) have been designed for home use and allow the application of the stimulation by the patient himself, while being monitored by the researcher. The OCT will be delivered through NeuronUp2GO platform.Possible adverse effects associated with neurostimulation (which are mild and transitory) and other variables that may affect its efficacy (medication diary, caffeine intake...) will be monitored daily.
Finally, a post-treatment assessment will be carried out 15 days after the start of treatment and a follow-up assessment will be carried out 1, 3 and 6 months after the end of treatment. The 15-day and 1 month assessments will be the same as the pre-treatment (questionnaries and neuropsychological test). The follow-ups at 3 and 6 months will be done online, by filling in questionnaires.
Both the treatment administration and analysis of the results will be blinded.
First, descriptive analyses will be performed on the sociodemographic and clinical data. To evaluate the efficacy of the treatments on depressive symptomatology and cognitive function, linear mixed models will be carried out. The dependent variable will be the test score, and treatment group, time (pre, post, follow-ups) and group\*time interaction as fixed factors, and participants as random effects.
The possible modulating effect of sociodemograpchic and clinical variables on treatment efficacy will be analyzed. Also, for the clinical validation of the treatments, the analysis of the Minimal Clinically Important Difference (MCID) at short (15 days), medium (1 month) and long term (3 and 6 months) will be included. The difference between the pre- and post-treatment assessment in the primary and secondary variable scores should be equal to or greater than 30%.
Proteomic analysis will be performed at the Fundación Biomédica Galicia Sur. The following analysis will be performed: determination of total protein, mass spectrometry and electrophoretic separation of the samples by SDS-PAGE and identification of the bands of interest by Shotgun. The whole sample will be analyzed in liquid mass spectrometer (LC-MS/MS). Linear or logistic regression analysis will be performed to determine the predictive power of the saliva biomarkerson treatment efficacy.
Since the present research involves adult humans, it will be conducted under applicable international, EU and national laws and regulations (The Declaration of Helsinki: Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects; The International Conference on Harmonisation (ICH)/Good Clinical Practice (GCP) Guidelines; the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Dignity of the Human Being with regard to the Application of Biology and Medicine; and the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights (2005). Permission has been obtained from the local IRB committee (CEIm de Galicia) to conduct the study.
In terms of data protection, this study complies with the directives of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), approved by the European Commission on April 27, 2016 (EU 2016/679) and with the Organic Law 3/2018, of December 5, 2018, on the Protection of Personal Data and guarantees of digital rights. The storage and treatment of the samples will be carried out in accordance with the Biomedical Research Law 14/2007 and RD 1716/201.
Patients' clinical data will be collected in the study-specific data collection notebook using REDCap (Research Electronic Data Capture), a secure web-based application for building and managing online surveys and databases. Data collection will be pseudo-anonymous, protecting the identity of the participant. Only the principal investigator of the entity responsible for data collection (USC) will know the pseudonymization codes. The research team will have access to all coded data collected for the study.
Conditions
See the medical conditions and disease areas that this research is targeting or investigating.
Study Design
Understand how the trial is structured, including allocation methods, masking strategies, primary purpose, and other design elements.
RANDOMIZED
PARALLEL
TREATMENT
DOUBLE
Study Groups
Review each arm or cohort in the study, along with the interventions and objectives associated with them.
Online Cognitive Training
15 sessions of 20 minutes each one.Training will focus on the stimulation of several cognitive functions (attention, memory and learning, language, executive functions,processing speed, etc) through different exercises. The sessions will be adjusted to the individual performance level. The participant will perform these exercises from their computer or tablet, through the NeuronUp2GO platform, and the researcher will have access to all the session data.
Online Cognitive Training
OCT
Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation
tDCS: 15 daily sessions targeting left DLPFC (anode: F3, cathode: Fp2) Current intensity will be set at 2mA and will be applied for 20 minutes, with 15-second ramps up and down at the beginning and end of the stimulation period.
During the session, the participant will be performing the OCT.
Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation
tDCS+OCT
Online Cognitive Training
OCT
Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation
tACS: 15 daily sessions targeting left DLPFC (anodes: F3, F4; frequency: 4Hz -theta-tACS-). Current intensity will be set at 2mA and will be applied for 20 minutes, with 15-second ramps up and down at the beginning and end of the stimulation period.
Participant will be performing the OCT during stimulation.
Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation
tACS+OCT
Online Cognitive Training
OCT
tES sham
15 sessions of sham stimulation for 20 minutes, acting as a placebo control group. The electrode montage will be the same as that used in the active neuromodulation conditions: tDCS for half of the participants and tACS for the other half. In this sham stimulation condition, the current will only be delivered for a 15 seconds, at the ramp-up and ramp-down times at the beginning and end of the session.
The OCT will also be the same as those performed by participants in the other groups
tES sham
tES sham + OCT
Online Cognitive Training
OCT
Interventions
Learn about the drugs, procedures, or behavioral strategies being tested and how they are applied within this trial.
Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation
tDCS+OCT
Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation
tACS+OCT
tES sham
tES sham + OCT
Online Cognitive Training
OCT
Other Intervention Names
Discover alternative or legacy names that may be used to describe the listed interventions across different sources.
Eligibility Criteria
Check the participation requirements, including inclusion and exclusion rules, age limits, and whether healthy volunteers are accepted.
Inclusion Criteria
* Patients who are receiving or have finished (maximum 6 months prior to participation in the participating in the study) some type of oncological treatment (Chemotherapy, Radiotherapy, Immunotherapy, Hormonal Therapy).
* Patients whose mother tongue is Galician or Spanish.
* Ability to give informed consent.
* Present depressive symptomatology: score of 4 or higher in the BDI-FS.
* Ability to use WhastApp
* Have access to some technology (desktop computer, laptop or tablet) and the Internet (Firefox or Chrome browsers).
Exclusion Criteria
* Patients with metastasis.
* Patients with a mental health disorder (major depressive disorder, bipolar,anxious, psychotic...) diagnosed by a psychiatrist prior to the oncological process.
* Patients with a history of cognitive impairment or dementia prior to the oncologic process.
oncological process.
* Patients with a history of neurosurgery, cortical lesions or neurological alterations prior to the oncological process.
* Patients with history or current consumption of non-prescribed drugs.
* Patients with the following medication regimen: mood stabilizers, antipsychotics, anticonvulsants, l-dopa, rivastigmine, dextromethorphan, flunarizine, sulpiride, use of benzodiazepines (excluding long half-life benzodiazepines (Bromazepam, Diazepam) on a continuous/habitual basis,Alprazolam \>1mg per day, Lorazepam \>2mg per day).
* Patients taking antidepressant medication should have a stable regimen ( same medication at the same dose for a minimum of four weeks prior to entering the study.The regimen with antidepressant drugs or drugs used as treatment to improve cognition should be kept stable during the entire participation (until the follow-up evaluation has been performed).
* Patients unable to complete a neuropsychological examination.
* Patients who are participating in a research study/clinical trial with drugs.
* Patients who present any condition contraindicated to undergo tES (intracranial ferromagnetic devices or implanted stimulators; history of active epilepsy; history of neurosurgery, traumatic brain injury with loss of brainwith loss of consciousness and/or cortical lesion) (Antal et al., 2017)
30 Years
65 Years
FEMALE
No
Sponsors
Meet the organizations funding or collaborating on the study and learn about their roles.
Fundacin Biomedica Galicia Sur
OTHER
University of Santiago de Compostela
OTHER
Responsible Party
Identify the individual or organization who holds primary responsibility for the study information submitted to regulators.
María Teresa Carrillo de la Peña
University Professor
Locations
Explore where the study is taking place and check the recruitment status at each participating site.
University of Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de Compostela, A Coruña, Spain
Fundación Biomédica Galicia Sur
Vigo, Pontevedra, Spain
Countries
Review the countries where the study has at least one active or historical site.
References
Explore related publications, articles, or registry entries linked to this study.
Lefaucheur JP, Antal A, Ayache SS, Benninger DH, Brunelin J, Cogiamanian F, Cotelli M, De Ridder D, Ferrucci R, Langguth B, Marangolo P, Mylius V, Nitsche MA, Padberg F, Palm U, Poulet E, Priori A, Rossi S, Schecklmann M, Vanneste S, Ziemann U, Garcia-Larrea L, Paulus W. Evidence-based guidelines on the therapeutic use of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). Clin Neurophysiol. 2017 Jan;128(1):56-92. doi: 10.1016/j.clinph.2016.10.087. Epub 2016 Oct 29.
Moffa AH, Martin D, Alonzo A, Bennabi D, Blumberger DM, Bensenor IM, Daskalakis Z, Fregni F, Haffen E, Lisanby SH, Padberg F, Palm U, Razza LB, Sampaio-Jr B, Loo C, Brunoni AR. Efficacy and acceptability of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) for major depressive disorder: An individual patient data meta-analysis. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 2020 Apr 20;99:109836. doi: 10.1016/j.pnpbp.2019.109836. Epub 2019 Dec 16.
Rodella C, Bernini S, Panzarasa S, Sinforiani E, Picascia M, Quaglini S, Cavallini E, Vecchi T, Tassorelli C, Bottiroli S. A double-blind randomized controlled trial combining cognitive training (CoRe) and neurostimulation (tDCS) in the early stages of cognitive impairment. Aging Clin Exp Res. 2022 Jan;34(1):73-83. doi: 10.1007/s40520-021-01912-0. Epub 2021 Jun 22.
Cheng ASK, Wang X, Niu N, Liang M, Zeng Y. Neuropsychological Interventions for Cancer-Related Cognitive Impairment: A Network Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. Neuropsychol Rev. 2022 Dec;32(4):893-905. doi: 10.1007/s11065-021-09532-1. Epub 2022 Jan 29.
Gaynor AM, Pergolizzi D, Alici Y, Ryan E, McNeal K, Ahles TA, Root JC. Impact of transcranial direct current stimulation on sustained attention in breast cancer survivors: Evidence for feasibility, tolerability, and initial efficacy. Brain Stimul. 2020 Jul-Aug;13(4):1108-1116. doi: 10.1016/j.brs.2020.04.013. Epub 2020 Apr 27.
Related Links
Access external resources that provide additional context or updates about the study.
tACS for the treatment of MDD
Other Identifiers
Review additional registry numbers or institutional identifiers associated with this trial.
FPU21/00082
Identifier Type: OTHER_GRANT
Identifier Source: secondary_id
2023/213
Identifier Type: -
Identifier Source: org_study_id
More Related Trials
Additional clinical trials that may be relevant based on similarity analysis.