Financial Navigation Program to Improve Understanding and Management of Financial Aspects of Cancer Care for Patients

Inclusion Criteria

• Patients must have a diagnosis of a metastatic or stage IV solid tumor or a hematologic malignancy and must receive anti-cancer treatment (i.e. chemotherapy, hormonal therapy, targeted therapy, biologic therapy, immune therapy, bone marrow transplant). Registration must occur within 180 days after diagnosis of metastatic or stage IV solid tumor or treatment-requiring hematologic malignancy. Patients with indolent hematologic diseases undergoing observation alone are not eligible; patients with previously diagnosed hematologic cancers progressed to the point of requiring systemic therapy are eligible, so long as the progression occurred within the previous 180 days. Biopsy confirmation of metastatic disease is not required
• Patients with recurrent solid tumors will be allowed as long as 1) this is the first presentation of metastatic or stage IV disease and 2) the diagnosis of the metastasis is at least 180 days (6 months) after the diagnosis date of the previous earlier stage cancer
• Patients with a history of secondary malignancy are allowed as long as they were not diagnosed within the previous 24 months, and are disease-free. Patients with adequately treated basal cell or squamous cell skin cancer, and in situ cervical cancer at any point prior to enrollment are eligible
• Patients who have started anti-cancer treatment for the current diagnosis must have started within 90 days prior to registration
• Patients who are planning to start anti-cancer treatment for the current diagnosis must start within (=<) 30 days after registration
• Patients are allowed to be co-enrolled on other clinical trials (including non-treatment studies and studies that may or may not include investigational drugs)
• Patients may not be enrolled in hospice care at the time of registration
• Patients must be at least 18 years of age
• Patients must have a Zubrod performance status of 0-2
• Patients must complete the baseline patient reported outcomes (PRO) questionnaires prior to registration and must be able to complete questionnaires in English or Spanish
• Patients must provide their full name, primary address in the United States (U.S.), birth date and social security number at registration for the purposes of accessing credit report data. (This may be obtained directly from the patient, study questionnaires, or the medical record)
• Patients must provide email and/or telephone number for the purposes of being contacted by financial navigators
• Caregiver participation is optional
• Spouse/partner caregivers must be living in the same household as the eligible patient and be either legally married, in a common law marriage, or be an intimate partner/significant other of the patient * The study team acknowledges that other types of caregivers may also face financial hardship following a patient’s cancer diagnosis and may similarly benefit from financial education and navigation. The decision to focus solely on spouse or partner caregivers was scientific, to understand how caregivers who share household finances experience financial hardship
• Non-spouse/partner caregivers such as friends, adult children, parents, or other relatives living in the same household as the patient are not eligible
• Spouse/partner caregivers must be at least 18 years of age
• Spouse/partner caregivers must provide their full name, primary address in the U.S., birth date and social security number at registration for the purposes of accessing credit report data
• Spouse/partner caregivers must provide email and/or telephone number for the purposes of being contacted by the financial navigators
• Spouse/partner caregivers must be able to complete questionnaires in English or Spanish and must complete the baseline questionnaires prior to patient registration
• Participants (patients and caregivers, when participating) must sign and give written informed consent in accordance with institutional and federal guidelines. Use of legally-authorized representative is not permissible for this study. Documentation of informed consent via remote consent is permissible
• As a part of the Oncology Patient Enrollment Network (OPEN) registration process the treating institution's identity is provided in order to ensure that the current (within 365 days) date of institutional review board approval for this study has been entered in the system