Survivors Journey+

Pediatric brain tumor survivors (PBTS) experience worse outcomes compared to other survivors or healthy adolescents and young adults. This includes quality of life (QoL), neurocognitive late effects, declines in IQ, executive functioning (EF), and social problem-solving skills. As adolescents navigate academic and social challenges, neurocognitive late effects place PBTS at elevated risk for impaired functioning during this critical transition. Equipping PBTS and their caregivers with a set of skills to manage stress, solve problems, and address neurocognitive and social challenges may promote better outcomes and prevent further declines in QoL. Prior research has targeted the survivor or caregiver in isolation, and not as family-centered treatment.

PBTS assume the largest burden of late effects from childhood cancer, with few effective solutions to address their lifelong challenges. Caregivers and families also experience stress and burden that can impact everyday functioning. Survivor's Journey Plus (SJ+) addresses this urgent need by offering a developmentally tailored, family-centered approach to improving social problem-solving, emotion-regulation, and metacognitive skills in PBTS, while offering strategies to reduce caregiver depression and family impact.

Our overarching objectives are to: 1) to refine the existing program based on feedback from patient advocates and establish usability and accessibility; 2) examine the efficacy of SJ+ in improving global QoL, internalizing symptoms, and EF skills in adolescent/emerging adult PBTS; and 3) examine the efficacy of SJ+ in reducing caregiver depression and family impact. Importantly, we will consider improvements in both patient-reported and performance-based outcomes. We will conduct a two-site, two-arm pilot RCT (n = 72) comparing SJ+ to an internet resource comparison (IRC) with outcomes assessed at baseline, treatment completion (~ 3 months post-baseline), and 6 months post-baseline.

SJ+ provides training in contextualized metacognitive strategies and communication skills to address common challenges (e.g., working memory, attention/planning, social communication) in the context of a broader social problem-solving framework. It is predicated on more than two decades of research with pediatric brain injury survivors, demonstrating its feasibility, acceptability, and efficacy among adolescents and young adults.

Inclusion criteria

• a diagnosis of a pediatric intracranial tumor
• tumor-directed treatment completed > 12 months ago (treatment included: surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy)
• lives with parent/guardian(s)
• language: English must be the primary spoken language in the home

Exclusion criteria

• history of tuberous sclerosis or neurofibromatosis
• treatment < 12 months ago and/or treatment did not include surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy
• history of psychiatric hospitalization
• resides outside of the family home
• history of autism, reactive attachment disorder, psychosis, or other psychiatric diagnoses/conditions associated with significant risk of harm to self or others per caregiver
• English is not the primary language spoken in the home