Background: Although the importance of work for patients with cancer is nowadays more acknowledged both in\nthe literature as well as in cancer survivorship care, effective interventions targeting the return to work of these\npatients are still scarce. Therefore, we developed a nurse-led, stepped-care, e-health intervention aimed at\nenhancing the return to work of patients with cancer. The objective of this study is to describe the content of the\nintervention and the study design used to evaluate the feasibility and (cost) effectiveness of the intervention.\nMethods: We designed a multi-centre randomised controlled trial with a follow-up of 12 months. Patients who\nhave paid employment at the time of diagnosis, are on sick leave and are between 18ââ?¬â??62 years old will be eligible\nto participate. After patients have signed the informed consent form and filled in the baseline questionnaire, they\nare randomly allocated to either the nurse-led, stepped-care, e-health intervention called Cancer@Work, or care as\nusual. The primary outcome is sustainable return to work. Secondary outcomes are sick leave days, work ability,\nwork functioning, quality of life, quality of working life and time from initial sick leave to full return to work without\nextensive need for recovery. The feasibility of the Cancer@Work intervention and direct and indirect costs will be\ndetermined. Outcomes will be assessed by questionnaires at 3, 6, 9 and 12 months of follow-up.\nDiscussion: The results of this study will provide new insights into the feasibility and (cost) effectiveness of\nCancer@Work, a nurse-led, stepped-care, e-health intervention for cancer patients aimed at enhancing their return\nto work. If proven effective, the intention is to implement the Cancer@Work intervention in usual psychooncological\ncare.
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