A randomised wait-list controlled trial to evaluate Emotional Freedom Techniques for self-reported cancer-related cognitive impairment in cancer survivors (EMOTICON)

Background: Cancer-related cognitive impairment (CRCI) is a prevalent source of comprised quality of life in cancer survivors. This study evaluated the efficacy of Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) on self-reported CRCI (sr-CRCI). Methods: In this prospective multicentre randomised wait-list controlled study (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02771028), eligible cancer survivors had completed curative treatment, were 18 years or older and screened positive for sr-CRCI with ≥ 43 on the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ). Participants were randomised to the immediate treatment group (ITG) or wait-list control (WLC) group, based on age (< or ≥ 65 years), gender, treatment (chemotherapy or not), and centre. The ITG started to apply EFT after inclusion and performed this for 16 weeks. The WLC group could only start the application of EFT after 8 weeks of waiting. Evaluations took place at baseline (T0), 8 weeks (T1) and 16 weeks (T2). The primary outcome was the proportion of patients with sr-CRCI according to the CFQ score. Findings: Between October 2016 and March 2020, 121 patients were recruited with CFQ ≥ 43 indicating sr-CRCI. At T1, the number of patients scoring positive on the CFQ was significantly reduced in the ITG compared to the WLC group (40.8% vs. 87.3% respectively; p