Guided Meditation During Radiation Therapy for Brain Tumors

NCT ID: NCT06165653

Last Updated: 2025-11-28

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: RECRUITING
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 30 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2024-02-29
• Study Completion Date: 2028-01-15

Brief Summary

The goal of this interventional treatment study is to assess the anxiolytic effect of providing guided meditation during radiation treatment (RT) in patients with brain tumors.

The main question it aims to answer is:

• What is the change in acute anxiety in participants receiving the mindfulness intervention during radiation therapy compared to standard of care control conditions?

Participants will be asked to participate in a 5-minute, audio-recorded mindfulness practice that will be played during the administration of each RT session. Researchers will compare this intervention to standard of care (no intervention) during RT.

Conditions

Brain Neoplasms

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: TREATMENT
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

Guided Meditation Intervention

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

5-Minute, Audio-Recorded Guided Mediation Practice

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Five different meditation practices will be provided, all of which have been validated in prior research.

• The Body Scan practice consists of instruction in how to direct non-judgmental attention to different regions of the body
• The Mindful Breathing practice consists of focused attention on the breath and metacognitive monitoring and acceptance of discursive thoughts, negative emotions, and body sensations
• The Mindfulness of Discomfort practice consists of instruction in how to "zoom in" to deconstruct discomfort and map each feelings' spatial location, use mindful breathing to "zoom out" and broaden the field of awareness to include neglected sensory elements, and shift attention from unpleasant feelings to neutral/pleasant sensations or experiences
• The Savoring practice consists of instruction in identifying and amplifying pleasant memories
• The Loving-Kindness practice consists of instruction in cultivating feeling of warmth and compassion toward the self and others

Standard of Care

Group Type: NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Interventions

5-Minute, Audio-Recorded Guided Mediation Practice

Five different meditation practices will be provided, all of which have been validated in prior research.

• The Body Scan practice consists of instruction in how to direct non-judgmental attention to different regions of the body
• The Mindful Breathing practice consists of focused attention on the breath and metacognitive monitoring and acceptance of discursive thoughts, negative emotions, and body sensations
• The Mindfulness of Discomfort practice consists of instruction in how to "zoom in" to deconstruct discomfort and map each feelings' spatial location, use mindful breathing to "zoom out" and broaden the field of awareness to include neglected sensory elements, and shift attention from unpleasant feelings to neutral/pleasant sensations or experiences
• The Savoring practice consists of instruction in identifying and amplifying pleasant memories
• The Loving-Kindness practice consists of instruction in cultivating feeling of warmth and compassion toward the self and others

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Participant aged ≥ 18 years.
• Radiologically confirmed tumor of the brain. Note: Participants may have tumor resected after diagnosis.
• Eligible to undergo radiation treatment for brain tumor for 25-33 treatments.
• Willing to participate in either the guided meditation or standard of care control arm, regardless of treatment assignment.
• Karnofsky performance score ≥ 60 or ECOG performance score ≤ 2.
• MoCA mini score ≥ 11
• Able to provide informed consent and willing to sign an approved consent form that conforms to federal and institutional guidelines.

Exclusion Criteria

• Active suicidal ideation or active psychotic state in the opinion of the investigator.
• An unstable illness that, in the opinion of the investigator, would interfere with study treatment.
• Prior radiation therapy to the brain.
• Inability to understand and/or speak the English language.

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Sponsors

University of Utah

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Responsibility Role: SPONSOR

Principal Investigators

Lindsay Burt, MD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Huntsman Cancer Institute/ University of Utah

Locations

Huntsman Cancer Institute

Salt Lake City, Utah, United States

Site Status: RECRUITING

Countries

United States

Central Contacts

Rachel Kingsford

Role: CONTACT

rachel.kingsford@hci.utah.edu

801-585-0115

Facility Contacts

Rachel Kingsford

Role: primary

rachel.kingsford@hci.utah.edu

801-585-0115

Other Identifiers

HCI167297

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id