NCT03964116: PAIRS-AJA

Impact of Sick Peer Relation on Adaptation to Disease and on Treatment of Cancer-suffering Adolescents & Young Adults

Completed NA Last updated 11 August 2025

What this trial tests

NA trial testing Questionnaires set all 3 months in Cancer in 100 participants. Completed in 25 January 2024.

Timeline

7 December 2018

Primary endpoint
25 January 2023

25 January 2024

Quick facts

Lead sponsor	Institut Curie
Phase	NA
Status	Completed
Study type	INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation	na
Design	single group
Masking	none
Primary purpose	other
Enrollment	100
Start date	7 December 2018
Primary completion	25 January 2023
Estimated completion	25 January 2024
Sites	2 locations across France

Drugs / interventions tested

• Questionnaires set all 3 months

Conditions studied

• Cancer — all drugs for Cancer →
• Adolescent Behavior — all drugs for Adolescent Behavior →
• Young Adult — all drugs for Young Adult →

Sponsor

Institut Curie — full company profile →

Who can join

Adults 15 to 27, any sex, with Cancer or Adolescent Behavior. Patients with the condition only — healthy volunteers not accepted.

Sponsor's own description

Adolescents and young adults (AYA) with cancer have to deal with a relatively segmented organization of care between pediatric and adult medicine structures in France. However, the third french Plan Cancer 2014-2019 helped in the recognition of the specificities of the AYA affected by cancer and allowed the creation of specific structures in some care units in France, whose primary goal is the preservation of the social link.

Indeed, peer relations contribute to access to quality social support, which is an important variable in patient adjustment with cancer. The adolescents that perceive higher social support report less psychological distress and exhibit higher adaptation scores.

It nevertheless happens that AYA experience negative social support, often from friends because of contact reduction during the disease. Patients can then elect to turn towards non-intimate relations such as support groups. The main risk when a AYA with cancer defines a sick peer as one bringing him quality social support is the installation of a sense of guilt, for example, when a young person is confronted with disease negative progress or with peer death. The more an adolescent identifies with the deceased, the more he is able to consider his own mortality.

AYA units are developing in France, creating a community of sick adolescents. These communities are precious for AYA and allow information and experience sharing, a feeling of reduced isolation and a greater emotional closeness with peers suffering from the same disease.

How is social support from peers and close friends perceived by these young people in AYA units and through the social networks? What can the consequences of the evolution of peer disease be on AYA? What is the impact of the mourning of sick peers on these young people? What are the predictors?

Publications & conference data

2 peer-reviewed publications reference this trial (live from Europe PMC):

1. The Place of Sick Peers in Adolescents and Young Adults with Cancer: Advantage, Disadvantage, and What Makes Barriers to the Encounter.
   Phan J, Laurence V, Marec-Berard P, Cordero C, et al · · 2023 · cited 4× · PMID 36999900 · DOI 10.1089/jayao.2022.0176
2. Psychological Adjustment, Adaptation, and Perception of Social Support in French Adolescents and Young Adults After the Diagnosis of Cancer.
   Phan J, Vander Haegen M, Karsenti L, Laurence V, et al · · 2023 · cited 3× · PMID 36067271 · DOI 10.1089/jayao.2022.0034