Feasibility Testing of Remotely Delivered Metacognitive Strategy Training in Cancer-Related Cognitive Impairment.

This was a pilot feasibility study, not an efficacy trial, and no significance testing was done, so the effect sizes only describe direction and variability. Only 42 participants completed all procedures, and the sample was primarily Non-Hispanic, White, middle-aged, and working, so results may not apply to more diverse survivors. Participants had to be fluent in English, have life expectancy over 6 months, and avoid recent medication changes, and severe depression or neurological conditions were excluded, so more complex patients were not tested. Self-report outcomes could be affected by volunteer bias, and quality of life favored the control group for reasons the authors say are unknown. The CO-OP intervention contains several active ingredients, and the study cannot say which one produced the effects.

Do not read the small differences as proof that remote CO-OP improves cognition or quality of life. This was a pilot feasibility study without efficacy testing, and quality of life favored the control group.