Patients living with cancer commonly have chronic pain due to the disease or to cancer treatments. Virtual reality, a new technology that immerses the user in pleasant, diverting, and exciting virtual environments, may lower chronic cancer pain to improve quality of life and complement need for pain medications like opioids. The investigators aim to learn from patients about the experience of cancer pain, develop a virtual reality prototype specific to cancer pain management, and test the feasibility and acceptability of this technology to improve the cancer pain experience.
age ≥18 years old
living with active cancer diagnosis (any solid tumor type)
report chronic cancer pain (≥3 months) with baseline severity moderate-severe (i.e., self-report pain score (SRPS) ≥4/10, where 0=no pain, 10=worst pain)
prescribed chronic opioid therapies (may be long-acting formulations, short-acting formulations, or both)
history of intractable nausea/vomiting, motion sickness, seizures/epilepsy, and/or cranial structure abnormalities preventing VR headset use
moderate-severe pain of non-cancer etiology (e.g., chronic lumbago)
enrolled in another pain study
unable to complete surveys in English or Spanish.
Single group
virtual reality pain therapy
BehavioralDISCOVR virtual reality pain therapy
Intervention feasibility
\>70% of participants completing the prescribed use of VR headset daily (≥10 minutes) for one week
Acceptability
Technology Acceptance Model questionnaire
Usability
System Usability Scale
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Medstar Health Research Institute
Lead sponsor
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Collaborator
