Chapters Transcript Video PRISM-AC Study Presented by Abby Rosenberg, MD, MS. A new psychosocial intervention is showing promising results for adolescents and young adults (AYA) facing advanced cancer. Adolescents and young adults are at high risk for poor psychosocial outcomes both during and after their cancer, and this is particularly true for those who experience progressive relapsed and high-risk types of cancers. In our previous work, we had wondered if scheduled and, um, like a curriculum of resilience coaching could help improve some of those outcomes in newly diagnosed AYAs. And what we found is sure enough, if you provide AYAs with reproducible Resilience resources like skills and stress management, setting goals, reframing their appraisals into things that are manageable, and finding meaning and purpose throughout their cancer experience, their mental health improves, their quality of life improves, their sense of resilience and hope for the future all improve. What we learned in those previous studies though was that amongst the AYAs where their cancers progressed or recurred while we were taking care of them, they said, you know what, you just taught us how to identify what matters to us and set goals for our future. It would be really helpful to do that specifically within the context of my now progressive or advanced disease. And so in this trial, we did exactly that. We provided this PRISM intervention and by the way, that stands for promoting resilience and stress Management for adolescents and young adults who had advancing cancers, either progressive or relapse diseases or those with a prognosis of less than 50% overall survival. And What we found were a couple of things. One, within the 1st 3 months, this PRISM plus advanced care planning thing does not improve quality of life, but it does improve a patient's sense of hope and resilience. And what we think is happening there is that you need to develop the tools and the resilience resources first. Then what we saw was roughly 69, 12 months into the study, people who received PRISM did start reporting improving quality of life, lower anxiety, and lower depression. And so again, the idea is, first you have to develop your resilient skills, and then you can have these durable impacts that improve your overall well-being. The last thing we saw that was really important is that people who received PRISM by that 69, 12 month mark were more engaged in their medical decision making, including advanced care planning. So they were more willing to talk to their doctors, nurses, and families about what mattered to them, even when it was really scary. And so altogether, what we think about when we really digest this study is that adolescents and young adults with advanced cancer still have those high risks of poor psychosocial outcomes and they tend to be less engaged in their healthcare. And something like PRISM that provides basic and reproducible positive psychology skills and resilience resources can have these durable impacts that improve well-being over time. Published June 11, 2025 Created by Related Presenters Abby Rosenberg, MA, MD, MS Medical Oncology View full profile
