Digital Intervention for Symptom Management in Cancer and Opioid Sparing Using Virtual Reality (DISCOVR) Study
DISCOVR
2 other identifiers
interventional
25
1 country
1
Brief 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 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.
Trial Health
Trial Health Score
Automated assessment based on enrollment pace, timeline, and geographic reach
participants targeted
Target at below P25 for not_applicable cancer
Started Dec 2025
Shorter than P25 for not_applicable cancer
1 active site
Health score is calculated from publicly available data and should be used for screening purposes only.
Trial Relationships
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Study Timeline
Key milestones and dates
First Submitted
Initial submission to the registry
November 13, 2025
CompletedFirst Posted
Study publicly available on registry
November 14, 2025
CompletedStudy Start
First participant enrolled
December 1, 2025
CompletedPrimary Completion
Last participant's last visit for primary outcome
August 31, 2026
ExpectedStudy Completion
Last participant's last visit for all outcomes
August 31, 2026
December 24, 2025
November 1, 2025
9 months
November 13, 2025
December 22, 2025
Conditions
Keywords
Outcome Measures
Primary Outcomes (1)
Intervention feasibility
\>70% of participants completing the prescribed use of VR headset daily (≥10 minutes) for one week
From enrollment to end of treatment at 7 days
Secondary Outcomes (2)
Acceptability
Collected at end of 7 days participation
Usability
Collected at end of 7 day participation
Study Arms (1)
Virtual reality pain therapy
EXPERIMENTALInterventions
DISCOVR virtual reality pain therapy
Eligibility Criteria
You may qualify if:
- 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)
You may not qualify if:
- 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.
Contact the study team to confirm eligibility.
Sponsors & Collaborators
- Medstar Health Research Institutelead
- National Cancer Institute (NCI)collaborator
Study Sites (1)
MedStar Georgetown Cancer Institute at MedStar Washington Hospital Center
Washington D.C., District of Columbia, 20010, United States
MeSH Terms
Conditions
Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)
Study Officials
- PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Hunter Groninger, MD
Medstar Health Research Institute
Central Study Contacts
Study Design
- Study Type
- interventional
- Phase
- not applicable
- Allocation
- NA
- Masking
- NONE
- Purpose
- SUPPORTIVE CARE
- Intervention Model
- SINGLE GROUP
- Sponsor Type
- OTHER
- Responsible Party
- SPONSOR
Study Record Dates
First Submitted
November 13, 2025
First Posted
November 14, 2025
Study Start
December 1, 2025
Primary Completion (Estimated)
August 31, 2026
Study Completion (Estimated)
August 31, 2026
Last Updated
December 24, 2025
Record last verified: 2025-11