CancerDISCOVRNCT07228377
Digital Intervention for Symptom Management in Cancer and Opioid Sparing Using Virtual Reality (DISCOVR) Study
A study testing virtual reality pain therapy in people with Cancer, run by Medstar Health Research Institute at 1 site in United States.
Trial summary
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… Read more about this study
- Who is it for?
- Ages 18 years and older
- Conditions the study is for
- Cancer
- What is being tested?
- virtual reality pain therapy
- Type of treatment
- Lifestyle or therapy programme
- Could I receive a placebo?
- No, everyone receives an active treatment
- How many people
- 25 participants
- Where
- 1 siteUnited States
- Study dates
- 1 Dec 2025to 31 Aug 2026
- Phase
- Interventional
- Are there results?
- Not yet: the study is under way
Key requirements
Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.
- Ages 18 years and older
- All sexes
- No healthy volunteers
- Adult, Older adult
Who may be able to join
- 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)
Who cannot join
- 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.
Trial locations and contacts
1 site in 1 country. Contact the study team or a site near you to ask about taking part.
Eloisa Leiva contact
United States1 site, 1 recruiting
- Recruiting
MedStar Georgetown Cancer Institute at MedStar Washington Hospital Center
Washington D.C., District of Columbia, 20010
Eloisa Leiva, (202) 877-5468, eloisa.leiva@medstar.net
About this study
Official title: Digital Intervention for Symptom Management in Cancer and Opioid Sparing Using Virtual Reality (DISCOVR) - Feasibility, Acceptability, Usability Testing of a Novel Intervention
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.
Read the detailed description
Patients living with cancer commonly experience chronic pain, defined as pain lasting at least three months. While cancer pain management has traditionally focused on pharmacologic therapies, particularly opioids, pain experts, clinical guidelines, and patients living with cancer increasingly support the use of non-pharmacologic therapies (including mind-body modalities such as distraction, mindfulness, and cognitive behavioral therapy) to mitigate pain and potentially reduce pain medication needs. Virtual reality (VR), a rapidly evolving technology that immerses the user in pleasant, virtual environments, has been shown to lower different forms of acute and chronic pain syndromes, but has not been developed specifically to improve chronic cancer pain. The long-term goal of the investigators is to develop and disseminate a patient-centered, patient-driven VR intervention that significantly improves the chronic cancer pain experience. Towards this end, they propose a multi-phase project involving active patient stakeholder input and an iterative design process that will achieve the following Specific Aims: Aim 1 - to identify patient perceptions around chronic cancer pain experiences and management strategies; Aim 2 - to develop a highly feasible, acceptable, usable, safe VR prototype enabling patient-directed management of cancer pain; Aim 3 - to conduct a trial to assess prototype feasibility, acceptability, usability, and safety. Completion of this project will lead towards development of a scalable VR intervention to mitigate pain that has potential to dramatically improve quality of life and clinical outcomes in patients living with chronic cancer pain.
- Conditions
- Cancer
- Being tested
- virtual reality pain therapy
- Keywords
- cancer pain, chronic pain, opioid, virtual reality, technology
- Medical subject headings
- Neoplasms, Cancer Pain, Chronic Pain
What participants receive
What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.
virtual reality pain therapyBehavioural
DISCOVR virtual reality pain therapy
| Study group | Role | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| Virtual reality pain therapy | Experimental | Not described Receives: Behavioral: virtual reality pain therapy |
What is being measured
The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.
Intervention feasibility
>70% of participants completing the prescribed use of VR headset daily (≥10 minutes) for one week
Measured: From enrollment to end of treatment at 7 days
Secondary outcomes (2)
Acceptability
Technology Acceptance Model questionnaire
Measured: Collected at end of 7 days participation
Usability
System Usability Scale
Measured: Collected at end of 7 day participation
Timeline
From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.
- First posted14 Nov 2025
- Study start1 Dec 2025
- Primary completion31 Aug 2026 (estimated)
- Study completion31 Aug 2026 (estimated)
Resources
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govThe registry entry this page is built from, with its full change history.
- Other trials for CancerStudies of the same condition, open and under way.
- What the trial phases meanHow a treatment moves from first tests in people to approval.
More details
For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.
Study design
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Phase N/A
- Primary purpose
- Supportive care
- Allocation
- Not applicable
- Intervention model
- Single group
- Masking
- None (open label)
- Enrolment
- 25 participants (estimated)
Sponsor and investigators
- Lead sponsor
- Medstar Health Research Institute
- Sponsor type
- University, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- National Cancer Institute (NCI)
- Responsible party
- Sponsor
- Investigators
- Hunter Groninger, MD, Principal investigator, Medstar Health Research Institute
IDs, dates and publications
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT07228377
- Sponsor's protocol ID
- STUDY00010075
- Other IDs
- 1R43CA302795-01A1
- Acronym
- DISCOVR
- Status last verified
- Nov 2025
- First submitted
- 13 Nov 2025
- Last updated
- 24 Dec 2025
- Results posted
- No
- Data monitoring committee
- No
- FDA-regulated drug
- No
- FDA-regulated device
- No
- Individual data sharing
- Undecided
Study at a glance
From the registry record, last updated by the sponsor on 24 Dec 2025. Recruitment status is as the sponsor reported it: confirm with the study team.
- Official title
- Digital Intervention for Symptom Management in Cancer and Opioid Sparing Using Virtual Reality (DISCOVR) - Feasibility, Acceptability, Usability Testing of a Novel Intervention
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT07228377
- Acronym / sponsor ID
- DISCOVR / STUDY00010075
- Conditions
- Cancer
- Keywords
- cancer pain, chronic pain, opioid, virtual reality, technology
- Study type
- Interventional
- Recruitment status
- Recruiting
- Enrolment
- 25 participants (estimated)
- Lead sponsor
- Medstar Health Research InstituteUniversity, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- National Cancer Institute (NCI)
- Study start
- 1 Dec 2025 (actual)
- Primary completion
- 31 Aug 2026 (estimated)
- Study completion
- 31 Aug 2026 (estimated)
- First posted
- 14 Nov 2025 (actual)
- Results
- Not posted in the source record
Clinical summary
The research question as the sponsor registered it. This describes what the study plans to test, not what it found.
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.
Detailed description
Patients living with cancer commonly experience chronic pain, defined as pain lasting at least three months. While cancer pain management has traditionally focused on pharmacologic therapies, particularly opioids, pain experts, clinical guidelines, and patients living with cancer increasingly support the use of non-pharmacologic therapies (including mind-body modalities such as distraction, mindfulness, and cognitive behavioral therapy) to mitigate pain and potentially reduce pain medication needs. Virtual reality (VR), a rapidly evolving technology that immerses the user in pleasant, virtual environments, has been shown to lower different forms of acute and chronic pain syndromes, but has not been developed specifically to improve chronic cancer pain. The long-term goal of the investigators is to develop and disseminate a patient-centered, patient-driven VR intervention that significantly improves the chronic cancer pain experience. Towards this end, they propose a multi-phase project involving active patient stakeholder input and an iterative design process that will achieve the following Specific Aims: Aim 1 - to identify patient perceptions around chronic cancer pain experiences and management strategies; Aim 2 - to develop a highly feasible, acceptable, usable, safe VR prototype enabling patient-directed management of cancer pain; Aim 3 - to conduct a trial to assess prototype feasibility, acceptability, usability, and safety. Completion of this project will lead towards development of a scalable VR intervention to mitigate pain that has potential to dramatically improve quality of life and clinical outcomes in patients living with chronic cancer pain.
Study design
- Primary purpose
- Supportive care
- Allocation
- Not applicable
- Intervention model
- Single group
- Masking
- None (open label)
- Number of arms
- 1
| Arm | Type | Receives |
|---|---|---|
| Virtual reality pain therapy | Experimental | Behavioral: virtual reality pain therapy |
Who may qualify
- Ages
- 18 years and older
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Not accepted
- Age groups
- Adult, Older adult
Key inclusion criteria (4 listed)
- 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)
Key exclusion criteria (4 listed)
- 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.
Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening; this overview does not establish that a patient qualifies. Full inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Interventions
| Intervention | Type | Arms |
|---|---|---|
| virtual reality pain therapyDISCOVR virtual reality pain therapy | Behavioural | Virtual reality pain therapy |
Primary outcome
Intervention feasibility
Time frame: From enrollment to end of treatment at 7 days
>70% of participants completing the prescribed use of VR headset daily (≥10 minutes) for one week
2 secondary outcomes
Acceptability
Time frame: Collected at end of 7 days participation
Usability
Time frame: Collected at end of 7 day participation
Results and safety
This study is still under way. Results are not available in the source record yet.
Research links
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govLast updated by the sponsor 24 Dec 2025.
- Individual participant dataSharing planned: Undecided
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Referral and contact
AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals. Contact the study team or a site listed below; they decide who can take part.
Eloisa Leiva contact
Hunter Groninger, MD principal investigator
Medstar Health Research Institute
1 site in 1 country: see every site and its status.
Questions about this trial
What is this clinical trial studying?
A study testing virtual reality pain therapy in people with Cancer, run by Medstar Health Research Institute at 1 site in United States.
The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.
Who may be eligible to take part?
The sponsor lists 4 inclusion and 4 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.
Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?
The record says: looking for participants now, as of the sponsor's last update on 24 Dec 2025. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.
Where is the study taking place?
The record lists 1 site in United States. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.
What are the possible benefits and risks?
They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.
Are results available for this study?
This study is still under way. Results are not available in the source record yet.
How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?
Contact Hunter Groninger, MD (202-877-7445, hunter.groninger@medstar.net), or a site near the patient. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.
What does the primary outcome measure?
Intervention feasibility (time frame: From enrollment to end of treatment at 7 days). It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.
Where can I read the original study information?
Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?
No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.
How often is this information updated?
AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 24 Dec 2025.