# Facilitating Advance Care Planning Discussions Between Patients with Advanced Cancer and Their Family Caregivers Using a Resilience-Building Intervention

> **NIH NIH K99** · UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO · 2024 · $114,830

## Abstract

Project Summary
This K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award's overall goal is to develop and assess the feasibility and
preliminary efficacy of a web-based resilience-building intervention to address patients with advanced
cancer and their family caregivers’ appraisals of advance care planning (ACP) and individual and dyadic
coping. ACP is a process to facilitate decision-making for future medical care. By supporting individuals
in understanding and sharing their values and goals, ACP can help patients meet their goals for health
care treatment, decrease the emotional burden of decision-making for family caregivers, and increase
satisfaction with end-of-life care and quality of death. Avoidance of ACP can delay the introduction of
palliative and hospice care and risk patients receiving costly and aggressive care that not only is goal-
discordant but also increases family caregivers’ anxiety and depression. The rationale for a web-based
resilience-building intervention is that patients and family caregivers can be empowered to accurately
appraise and use appropriate coping strategies for ACP by increasing their resilience skills. Building
resilience has shown promising results in reducing cancer distress in adolescents and young adults with
cancer and their parents. The proposed study is guided by the Systemic Transactional Model and utilizes
a dyadic intervention approach. The training goals of the proposed study are to (1) develop expertise in
dyadic study design and intervention development for people with cancer and their caregivers; (2) gain
specialized knowledge in digital positive psychology interventions; (3) gain skills in leading randomized
controlled trials and dissemination and implementation science; and (4) secure a tenure-track position.
The Specific Aims for the K99 phase are to (1) identify the ACP deliberation process among 20 dyads of
patients with advanced cancer and family caregivers and (2) conduct usability testing among 9 dyads to
refine the content and design of the web-based resilience-building intervention. The Specific Aims for the
R00 phase are to (1) assess the feasibility and acceptability of the web-based resilience-building
intervention among patients with advanced cancer and their family caregivers through a randomized
clinical trial in a cancer center setting; (2) evaluate the preliminary efficacy of the intervention compared
to usual care on changes in the completion of advance directives (primary outcome) and on patient and
caregiver resilience, individual and dyadic coping, anxiety, and depression (secondary outcomes); and
(3) explore the dyadic effects of resilience within patients with advanced cancer and their family
caregivers on individual and dyadic coping, anxiety, and depression, using the Actor-Partner
Interdependence Model. The expected outcomes are identification and development of the essential
components of the web-based intervention (K99 phase) and data that provides a strong foundation for
furthe...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10896360
- **Project number:** 5K99NR020358-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO
- **Principal Investigator:** Li-Ting Huang Longcoy
- **Activity code:** K99 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $114,830
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2023-08-01 → 2025-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10896360

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10896360, Facilitating Advance Care Planning Discussions Between Patients with Advanced Cancer and Their Family Caregivers Using a Resilience-Building Intervention (5K99NR020358-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10896360. Licensed CC0.

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