{"entity":{"id":"rejuv-trial-canwork","kind":"trial","name":"CanWork: an occupational therapy programme to help women return to work after breast cancer","aka":["CanWork","NCT06723899"],"tldr":"Return to work is one of the outcomes most affected by cancer treatment and least provided for. This cluster-randomised trial tests a five-module occupational therapy programme and costs it, so that a commissioner could act on the result.","summary":"The return-to-work record on this front sets out what is known and what is missing: trials of vocational rehabilitation exist, every one was in a high-income country, and none of the literature covers self-employment, which is the situation in which a cancer diagnosis most directly removes income. CanWork adds a trial with an economic analysis attached, which is the part that determines whether anything is commissioned.\n\nThe intervention is online and occupational-therapy led: five group-based modules of 90 minutes each, plus an individual meeting with the facilitating occupational therapist, aimed at managing the cancer-related symptoms that interfere with work and covering workplace entitlements. It was developed with women who had had breast cancer and with the services that support them, and was piloted in 2021. The comparator group receives the standard supportive care provided at their local community cancer support centre. Randomisation is by cluster and the outcomes assessor is blinded.\n\nThere are two primary outcomes at twelve months from enrolment: return to work as a self-reported yes or no, which the investigators note a systematic review identified as the most commonly used work-related measure, and the ten-item return-to-work self-efficacy questionnaire. The registry states that the costs of running and attending the intervention will be calculated, and that the team intends to work with Irish cancer services on national availability if it is effective.\n\nThe registry records no phase for this study, as it tests a behavioural intervention rather than a drug; it is filed here as phase 3 because OnCo's schema has no value for an unphased randomised trial. Registry dates, read on 2 October 2026: start 13 November 2024 (actual), primary completion 30 September 2027 (estimated), completion 31 March 2028 (estimated). Enrolment of 248 is the registry's estimate.","status":"recruiting","asOf":"2026-10-02","links":[{"label":"ClinicalTrials.gov NCT06723899","url":"https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06723899"}],"tags":["rejuvenation","survivorship","open-problem","return-to-work","rehabilitation"],"related":["rejuv-life-return-to-work","rejuv-life-employment-rights-uk","rejuv-life-money-after-treatment","rejuv-agenda-rehabilitation-not-commissioned","idea-rejuv-rehabilitation-prescription-at-discharge","idea-acc-return-to-work-rehabilitation","rejuvenation-roadmap"],"cancers":["breast-cancer"],"sections":["rejuvenation","supportive-care"],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"nct":"NCT06723899","phase":"3","setting":"Women aged 18 to 70 with breast cancer, community cancer support centres, Ireland","sponsor":"Trinity College Dublin, with the National Cancer Control Programme Ireland, the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and the University of Galway","started":"2024-11-13","startedType":"actual","enrolled":248,"enrolledBasis":"registry","outcomes":[]},"route":"/trials/rejuv-trial-canwork/","neighbours":{"technology":[{"id":"rejuv-life-employment-rights-uk","kind":"technology","name":"Employment rights with cancer in the United Kingdom","route":"/technologies/rejuv-life-employment-rights-uk/"},{"id":"rejuv-life-return-to-work","kind":"technology","name":"Going back to work after cancer: the rates, and the programmes that change them","route":"/technologies/rejuv-life-return-to-work/"},{"id":"rejuv-life-money-after-treatment","kind":"technology","name":"Money after treatment: what the cost of cancer does once the treatment has finished","route":"/technologies/rejuv-life-money-after-treatment/"}],"bottleneck":[{"id":"rejuv-agenda-rehabilitation-not-commissioned","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Rehabilitation is recommended everywhere and commissioned almost nowhere","route":"/bottlenecks/rejuv-agenda-rehabilitation-not-commissioned/"}],"idea":[{"id":"idea-acc-return-to-work-rehabilitation","kind":"idea","name":"Vocational rehabilitation integrated into cancer care so survivors can return to work","route":"/ideas/idea-acc-return-to-work-rehabilitation/"},{"id":"idea-rejuv-rehabilitation-prescription-at-discharge","kind":"idea","name":"Write a rehabilitation prescription at the end of treatment, and fund it like a drug","route":"/ideas/idea-rejuv-rehabilitation-prescription-at-discharge/"}],"roadmap":[{"id":"rejuvenation-roadmap","kind":"roadmap","name":"Recovery and rejuvenation roadmap: cure is not enough → survivorship gets a name → the cohorts that measured the cost → exercise proven as treatment → biological ageing measured and sold → repair, if anyone funds it","route":"/roadmaps/rejuvenation-roadmap/"}],"cancer":[{"id":"breast-cancer","kind":"cancer","name":"Breast cancer (all types)","route":"/cancers/breast-cancer/"}],"section":[{"id":"rejuvenation","kind":"section","name":"Recovery & Rejuvenation","route":"/fronts/rejuvenation/"},{"id":"supportive-care","kind":"section","name":"Supportive Care & Survivorship","route":"/fronts/supportive-care/"}]}}