Can compassion meditation ease the emotional toll of breast cancer?
NCT ID NCT05676255
First seen Oct 08, 2026 · Last updated Oct 09, 2026 · Updated 1 time
Summary
Many breast cancer survivors face depression and anxiety long after treatment ends. This trial tests an eight-week online compassion meditation program called Cognitively-Based Compassion Training, delivered by video conference. It compares survivors who take the program with a supportive partner to those who take it alone, measuring changes in depression and anxiety symptoms.
What this could mean
Our plain-language read of the trial. This is informational only, not medical advice or a prediction.
- Active substance
- Cognitively-Based Compassion Training, a secular compassion meditation program delivered over video conference
- What this could lead to
- If it works, this could give survivors and their partners a low-cost, home-based way to ease depression and anxiety after cancer treatment.
- What could go wrong
- Meditation does not help everyone, and distress after cancer often has many causes. Results from this program may not carry over to survivors without a partner or to other cancer types.
This is an AI summary of the original study and may miss details. Read our disclaimer.
Study facts
What this study's own registry entry says, in plain language.
- Phase
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Phase 2
Tests whether the treatment actually works, and watches for side effects, in a larger group.
- Participants
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About 452 people
The number the study aims to enrol. It can still change while the study runs.
- Started
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Mar 2023
- Expected to finish
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Jun 2027
An estimate. End dates often move.
- Lead sponsor
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Other sponsor
The registry's catch-all category, for sponsors it does not file as a company, a government agency, or a research network.
Who can take part
This study's own entry requirements. Only the study team can say for certain whether you qualify.
- Ages
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18 years and older
- Sex
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Anyone
- Healthy volunteers
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Accepted
You do not need to have the condition being studied to take part.
Show the full entry requirements Hide the full entry requirements
Copied word for word from the study's registry entry, so the wording is the study team's rather than ours.
Breast cancer survivors: Inclusion Criteria: * biological sex: woman * able to speak and understand English * have a diagnosis of a breast cancer * have completed primary curative cancer treatments (i.e., surgery, radiation, chemotherapy) except for hormonal therapies (e.g., aromatase inhibitors) or trastuzumab a minimum of 3 months and a maximum of 5 years before starting CBCT or the control * have a supportive partner (aka caregiver) who can participate with them Exclusion Criteria: * nursing home resident * have ongoing (1 or more meditation sessions per week) or past regular meditation experience in the last 4 years (i.e., more than two meditation sessions \[completed or attempted\] per year, either with a group or individually, to be evaluated by the Principal Investigator) Supportive partners (aka informal caregivers) Inclusion Criteria: * named by the survivor * live in the same household as the survivor * able to speak and understand English Exclusion Criteria: * have ongoing (1 or more meditation sessions per week) or past regular meditation experience in the last 4 years (i.e., more than two meditation sessions \[completed or attempted\] per year, either with a group or individually, to be evaluated by the Principal Investigator)
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Conditions
The condition(s) this trial relates to.
As listed by the trial registrant
The condition terms exactly as the trial's registrant entered them.
How to take part
Only the study team decides who joins. These are the ways to reach them.
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The places running it
1 site. The list below names each one and where it is.
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The official record
ClinicalTrials.gov lists the study team's own contact details, including names and phone numbers. We don't republish those.
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A doctor treating you
A doctor who knows your case can contact a study site on your behalf, and can tell you whether this study is worth pursuing at all.
Contacts and locations
Locations
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University of Arizona
RECRUITINGTucson, Arizona, 85721, United States
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