Feasibility, acceptability, and safety of the Recapture Life videoconferencing intervention for adolescent and young adult cancer survivors

Objective Online psychological therapies provide a way to connect adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer survivors to evidence‐based support. We aimed to establish the feasibility, acceptability, and safety of Recapture life, a six‐session group‐based online cognitive‐behavioural intervention, led by a facilitator, for AYAs in the early post‐treatment period. Methods A randomised‐controlled trial compared Recapture Life to an online peer‐support group control and a waitlist control. Participants could nominate a support person. Acceptability was assessed using study opt‐in and retention rates, participant‐reported benefits/burdens of participation, and group facilitator burden. We also assessed the feasibility (eg, frequency/impact of technological difficulties) and psychological safety (ie, occurrence of clinically concerning distress) of the program. Results Sixty‐one participants took part (45 AYAs, 51.1% female; 19 support people). The opt‐in rate was 30%, the enrolment rate was 87%, and 75% of participants took part in ≥5/6 sessions. AYAs reported high benefit and low burden of participation. Overall, 95 online group sessions were conducted; few required rescheduling by group facilitators (3%), but many took place outside of office hours (~90 hours). It took 40 days on average to create online groups, but established weekly sessions commenced quickly (M = 4.0 minutes). Technological difficulties were common but had a low impact on intervention delivery. Although 54% of AYAs returned a clinically concerning distress screen at some point, none reflected acute mental health risks. Conclusions The data largely indicate that Recapture Life is an acceptable, feasible, and safe model of evidence‐based psychological support for AYAs during early survivorship, which nevertheless experienced common challenges in online/AYA intervention delivery.