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RecruitingObservational

Accelerated Biological and Phenotypic Aging in Hematopoietic Cell Transplant Survivors: Social Support as a Protective Factor

NCT ID: NCT04892823Sponsor: Medical College of WisconsinLast updated: 2025-07-16

Summary

This project aims to elucidate the important protective elements of social relationships and identify concrete, modifiable behavioral factors that contribute to biological and phenotypic aging in hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) survivors and can be used to develop biologically informed interventions to improve quality of life and prolong the healthspan of individuals with accelerated aging.

Detailed description

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES: I. Examine associations between social support, strain, and isolation and phenotypic aging over the 1-year recovery period. II. Examine associations between social support, strain, and isolation and biological aging over the 1-year recovery period. III. Test biological aging as a mediator linking social processes and phenotypic aging. EXPLORATORY OBJECTIVE: I. Test sex differences in Aims 1 and 2. OUTLINE: Adopting a prospective design, participants will complete comprehensive assessments of social processes at 100 days and 1 year after HCT that combine reports of social support, strain, and isolation with a naturalistic observation tool, the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR), which captures ambient sound bites to assess social interactions in survivors' daily lives16. At each time point, participants will also provide reports of symptoms to characterize phenotypic aging, including cognitive, physical, and functional complaints, and blood samples to assess biological aging, including cellular senescence, DNA damage, SASP, and cellular stress using genome-wide RNA sequencing. Relevant clinical information that could influence biological aging will also be collected from patients' medical records to consider as covariates.

Arms & interventions

  • ProcedureBiospecimen Collection

    Undergo collection of blood sample

  • OtherElectronic Health Record Review

    Review of medical records

  • OtherQuestionnaire Administration

    Complete questionnaires

Outcome measures

Primary

  • The number of participants with gene expression of cellular senescence marker p16.

    This will be measured by mRNA/gene expression.

    Time frame: Day 100 and 1 year post-transplant

Eligibility criteria

Sex: AllAge: 18 Years and olderHealthy volunteers: No
Inclusion Criteria: * Aged 18 years and older who are competent to give their informed consent. * Ability to read, speak, and understand English. * Received a hematopoietic cell transplant within the previous 100 days. Exclusion Criteria: * Less then Aged 18 years and older who are competent to give their informed consent. * Cannot read, speak, and understand English. * Has not received a hematopoietic cell transplant within the previous 100 days.

Study locations (1)

Froedtert Hospital and the Medical College of Wisconsin

Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 53226

Recruiting
Kelly Rentscher, PhD · Contact
414-955-8990krentscher@mcw.edu
Kelly Rentscher, PhD · Principal Investigator
Social Relationships and Accelerated Aging in Hematopoietic Cell Transplant Survivors | Cancerify