# Meaning-Centered Psychotherapy Training Program for Cancer Care Clinicians

> **NIH NIH R25** · SLOAN-KETTERING INST CAN RESEARCH · 2020 · $276,188

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
The overall objective of this project, entitled “Meaning-Centered Psychotherapy Training for Cancer Care
Providers” (MCPT), is to continue facilitate the implementation and dissemination of Meaning-Centered
Psychotherapy (MCP), a Research-Tested Intervention Program (RTIP) through a multi-modal training program
for cancer care clinicians. There is extensive evidence demonstrating a need for interventions targeting
depression, hopelessness, loss of meaning and spiritual and existential distress in patients coping with the
challenges of advanced cancer. To address this need, Breitbart and colleagues developed MCP as an innovative
and novel intervention to enhance meaning and reduce despair in advanced cancer patients living in the face of
death. Since our National Institute of Health (NIH) R25 grant was funded, we have successfully developed MCPT
and trained 297 clinicians from a wide variety of clinical institutions and settings. As proposed, we utilized the
RE-AIM framework, comprised of five distinct factors: 1) Reach, 2) Efficacy, 3) Adoption, 4) Implementation, and
5) Maintenance, to evaluate the impact of the MCPT program on the translation of MCP into clinical practice.
Preliminary results indicate that trainees are extremely satisfied with the MCPT program, have become proficient
in the delivery of MCP, have successfully implemented MCP in their own clinical settings, and are maintaining
or improving their MCP skills post-training. We are applying for a 5-year renewal of this R25 grant to capitalize
on overwhelming interest expressed by cancer care clinicians in our innovative, immersive training and to further
disseminate MCP to advanced cancer patients in need of evidence-based psychosocial care. We will offer this
training to an additional 336 clinicians during years 6-10 and enhance the follow-up components of the training
to further improve MCP skill maintenance, adoption, and implementation in clinical practice. This will also enable
us to continue to collect data on the implementation of MCP with patients in the “real world” across diverse
clinical settings. The long-term goal of this project is to disseminate MCP to a wide variety of cancer and palliative
care treatment settings through the training of a large, diverse cadre of clinicians. Thus, the specific aims of this
study are to: Aim 1: Provide and further develop a training program in MCP for cancer care clinicians from
multiple disciplines who provide psycho-oncology and psychosocial palliative care services for cancer patients;
Aim 2: Evaluate trainees’ MCP skill acquisition through facilitators’ ratings of MCPT participants and participants’
satisfaction with the program and adoption, implementation, and maintenance of skills; and Aim 3: Evaluate the
impact of enhanced follow-up training and engagement in MCP community activities on MCP implementation
and skill maintenance.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9935388
- **Project number:** 2R25CA190169-06
- **Recipient organization:** SLOAN-KETTERING INST CAN RESEARCH
- **Principal Investigator:** William Breitbart
- **Activity code:** R25 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $276,188
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** 2015-09-01 → 2025-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9935388

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9935388, Meaning-Centered Psychotherapy Training Program for Cancer Care Clinicians (2R25CA190169-06). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9935388. Licensed CC0.

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