BACKGROUND: Prostate cancer predisposes patients and caregivers to a wide range of complex physical and psychosocial challenges, and interventions must incorporate a wide range of self-management strategies to help patients and their caregivers effectively cope with cancer challenges . To palliate this need, our team recently developed and evaluated the initial acceptability of a dyadic, Tailored, wEb-based, psychosocial, and physical activity self-Management PrOgram (TEMPO). TEMPO is a 10-week, interactive, web-based intervention consisting of five modules designed to help dyads manage their physical and psychosocial needs . It aims to teach dyads new self-management strategies and encourages them to increase their physical activity (PA) levels, mainly through walking and strength-based exercises . Initial acceptability evaluation of TEMPO revealed high user satisfaction, in addition to having a number of potential benefits for participants . After integrating suggested changes to TEMPO, the proposed pilot study aims to further test the acceptability and feasibility of TEMPO .

METHODS: This study is a multicenter, stratified, parallel, two-group, pilot randomized control trial (RCT), where patient-caregiver dyads are randomized (stratified by anxiety level) to receive (a) TEMPO or (b) usual care . Participants (n goal = 40) are recruited across Canada at participating cancer centers and through self-referral (e.g., online recruitment). Patient inclusion criteria are (a) having received prostate cancer treatment within the past 2 years or scheduled to receive treatment, (b) identified a primary caregiver willing to participate in the study, and (c) has access to the Internet . Eligible caregivers are those identified by the patient as his primary source of support . Dyads complete a baseline questionnaire (T1) and another one 3 months later (T2) assessing various aspects of physical and emotional functioning (e.g., the Medical Outcomes Study (MOS) 12-item Short Form Health Survey (SF-12), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) ), self-management behaviors (e.g., the Health Education Impact Questionnaire (heiQ) ), physical activity (the International Physical Activity Questionnaires (IPAQ) and the Multidimensional Self-efficacy for Exercise Scale (MSES) ), and dyadic coping (the Dyadic Coping Inventory (DCI) ). Dyads that used TEMPO are also asked to participate in a semi-structured exit interview exploring their overall experience with the program .

DISCUSSION: This feasibility analysis will begin to develop the knowledge base on TEMPO's value for men with prostate cancer and their caregivers to inform a larger trial .

TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT04304196.