Recruiting

Telehealth Music Therapy

Sponsor:

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Code:

NCT07052916

Conditions

Blood Cancer

Lymphoma

Leukemia

Myeloma

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 18+

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Interventions

Music Therapy/MT

Therapist-Attention Music Education/TAME Control

Study Details

Brief summary:

Research has shown that music-based activities may help improve brain functions, such as attention, memory, and executive function. Because of this past research, the researchers are doing this study to find out whether telehealth music therapy is a practical treatment for cognitive difficulties in blood cancer survivors. The researchers will also study whether music therapy and music education help improve cognitive function and other common symptoms such as anxiety, depression, and/or tiredness.

Conditions

Blood Cancer

Lymphoma

Leukemia

Myeloma

Study ID

NCT07052916

Start date

Jun 27, 2025

Status verified date

May, 2026

Completion date

Dec 27, 2026

Anticipated

Primary completion date

Dec 27, 2026

Anticipated

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 18+

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Inclusion Criteria:

  • English-proficient, aged 18 or older
  • Diagnosis of lymphoma, leukemia, or myeloma
  • Stable oncologic disease or no evidence of disease as indicated in the medical chart or by the oncology team
  • Score of <54 on the FACT-Cog PCI subscale
  • Minimum life expectancy of one year as per clinician assessment
  • Patient should be able to understand and complete all study assessments on their own.
  • Eligible patient should be able to understand informed consent and provide signed informed consent in English.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Less than 3 months since completion of surgery, radiation, induction chemotherapy (for newly diagnosed or relapsed disease), transplantation, or immunotherapy (e.g., CAR T-Cell, bispecific antibodies)

  • If there is a defined treatment period, the patient must be at least 3 months from treatment completion
  • If the patient is on continuous therapy, patient must have completed at least 6 months of the therapy
  • Maintenance therapies are allowed
  • Received music therapy (MT) in the past year
  • Current music training, >6 months of music training in the past 10 years, or plan to initiate music training during the study
  • No access to an internet-connected device
  • Active suicidal ideation, bipolar, schizophrenia, or substance abuse
  • BOMC score ≥10 (indicative of dementia)
  • Uncorrectable visual, auditory, or motor impairments
  • Initiation or altered dose of sedative, stimulant, or anti-cholinergic medications in the past month or plan to initiate these medications during the study, as these are known to impact cognitive function
  • Initiation of any other interventions for CRCD (e.g., cognitive rehabilitation) in the past month or plan to initiate these interventions during the study, as these are known to impact cognitive function

Study Design

Enrollment

60 participants

Anticipated

Allocation

Non randomized

Intervention Model

Parallel Assignment

Primary purpose

Treatment

Interventions and Outcome Measures

Arms

experimental: Music Therapy/MT

Participants will receive 12, weekly 60-minute MT sessions (+/- 1 week) with homework in-between sessions to reinforce in-session concepts, practice musical skills, and serve as transitions to subsequent sessions

active comparator: Therapist Attention-Music Education/TAME control

Patients will receive 12, weekly 60-minute Therapist Attention-Music Education/TAME sessions (+/- 1 week) with homework in-between sessions to reinforce in-session concepts and serve as transitions to subsequent sessions. The TAME control group will involve board-certified music therapists guiding participants through music listening exercises.

no intervention: Wait-List Control/WLC

The Wait-List Control/WLC group will receive usual care from healthcare providers and complete the same assessments as the other groups. The WLC will have the option of receiving either 12 sessions of MT or 12 sessions of TAME intervention when the study concludes after the 24-week waiting period. The WLC participants will choose which intervention (MT or TAME) they wish to receive.

Interventions

Music Therapy/MT

Therapeutic music lessons are the core component of the Music Therapy/MT intervention. Other components include guided music listening to help participants use music as a tool for regulating mood, energy, and attention, as well as music-centered discussions to help participants discover songs with personal meaning that they will enjoy learning to play.

Therapist-Attention Music Education/TAME Control

Participants will receive 12, weekly 60-minute TAME sessions (+/- 1 week) with homework in-between sessions to reinforce in-session concepts and serve as transitions to subsequent sessions. The TAME control group will involve board-certified music therapists guiding participants through music listening exercises.

Primary outcome measure

  • Feasibility of studying a telehealth-based Music Therapy/MT intervention for cancer-related cognitive dysfunction/CRCD in hematologic cancer survivors as defined as the completion of 9 or more sessions. [ Time Frame: up to 1 year ]

Central Contacts and Locations

Central contacts

Kevin Liou, MD

646-608-8563liouk@mskcc.org

Jun Mao, MD, MSCE

646-608-8552maoj@mskcc.org

Locations

Memorial Sloan Kettering Basking Ridge (All protocol activities)

Recruiting

Basking Ridge, New Jersey, United States, 07920

Contacts

Kevin Liou, MD

646-608-8559

Memorial Sloan Kettering Monmouth (All protocol activities)

Recruiting

Middletown, New Jersey, United States, 07748

Contacts

Kevin Liou, MD

646-608-8559

Memorial Sloan Kettering Bergen (All protocol activities)

Recruiting

Montvale, New Jersey, United States, 07645

Contacts

Kevin Liou, MD

646-608-8559

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Suffolk - Commack (All protocol activities)

Recruiting

Commack, New York, United States, 11725

Contacts

Kevin Liou, MD

646-608-8559

Memorial Sloan Kettering Westchester (All protocol activities)

Recruiting

Harrison, New York, United States, 10604

Contacts

Kevin Liou, MD

646-608-8559

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (All protocol activities)

Recruiting

New York, New York, United States, 10065

Contacts

Kevin Liou, MD

646-608-8563

Memorial Sloan Kettering Nassau (All protocol activities)

Recruiting

Uniondale, New York, United States, 11553

Contacts

Kevin Liou, MD

646-608-8559

More Information

Sponsor

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Last update posted

May 26, 2026

Last verified

May, 2026

Keywords

  • Blood cancer survivor
  • myeloma
  • Leukemia
  • Lymphoma
  • Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
  • 25-119

Trial information was received from ClinicalTrials.gov and was last updated on 2026-09-08. This information was provided to ClinicalTrials.gov by Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center on 2026-05-26.