Recipient organisationNIHR Biomedical Research Centre at the Royal Marsden and the ICRSource-published name: NIHR Royal Marsden Biomedical Research Centre
NIHR supportRecorded as supported by this research centre
PeriodJan 2025 — Mar 2026
In plain English
AI plain-English summary
A short course of films and reflection exercises aims to teach teenage and young adult cancer survivors that their bodies are resilient and capable of healing, rather than damaged or untrustworthy. Many childhood cancer survivors suffer long after treatment ends—not from the original disease, but from chronic pain, anxiety, and a poor quality of life. Standard follow-up care focuses on physical monitoring, not on the psychological aftermath. This trial tests whether deliberately shifting a survivor’s “body mindset”—their beliefs about what their body can do—can close that gap. If the intervention works, it would offer a cheap, scalable tool that could be delivered online to thousands of survivors without adding burden to stretched NHS clinics. A changed mindset might reduce pain, boost resilience, and improve daily functioning for young people who otherwise face decades of reduced wellbeing. The study recruits 16-to-25-year-olds from three major hospitals and compares the intervention against an active control group that completes the same questionnaires but receives no mindset training. Results are measured at baseline, during the six-week programme, and at three months after it ends.
View original technical description
Survivors of childhood cancer experience impaired health-related quality of life, psychological distress, and pain. A previously developed body mindset intervention has improved health-related quality of life and symptom distress in adult cancer patients. In the current research, we will examine whether a body mindset intervention can instil adaptive body mindsets, boost resilience, and improve physical and psychological functioning in survivors of childhood cancer.Survivors of childhood cancer will be randomised to the body mindset intervention or an active attention control group. The body mindset intervention aims to instil adaptive mindsets that the child’s body is resilient, working with them rather than against them, and is capable of healing after cancer treatment and that an experience of cancer can be an opportunity. Participants receiving the body mindset intervention will complete three modules over six-weeks consisting of short films and reflection exercises to guide participants to more adaptive body mindsets. Participants in this group will also complete a range of questionnaires at baseline, weeks two, four, and six, and at a 10-week and 3-month follow-up.Participants in the active attention control group complete the same questionnaires at baseline, weeks two, four, and six, and at a 10-week and 3-month follow-up. Therefore, the purpose of the active attention control group is to control for completing online surveys and engaging with the research team to receive surveys.Survivors of childhood cancer aged 16-25 will be recruited from The Royal Marsden Hospital, University College London Hospital (UCLH), and University Hospital Southampton (UHS). Clinicians at the hospitals will screen medical records and contact those who are eligible to provide information about the study. Overall, we predict that the body mindset intervention will increase adaptive body mindsets, reduce maladaptive body mindsets, and improve health-related quality of life, resilience, psychological and physical functioning compared to the active attention control group.
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