Clinical trialNCT06077487TerminatedPhase 4Interventional

Ketamine-assisted Therapy for Advanced GI Cancer

SponsorBrian Anderson, MDEnrollment1DemoralizationGastrointestinal CancersPain, AcutePancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma

View the registry record on ClinicalTrials.gov

Summary

The lay summary the sponsor registered on ClinicalTrials.gov.

This clinical trial evaluates whether it is possible to use a single dose of ketamine in combination with talk therapy to treat moderate to severe demoralization in patients with stage 3 or 4 gastrointestinal (GI) cancers who take opioids for cancer-related pain. Advanced stage gastrointestinal (GI) cancer patients often suffer from high rates of psychosocial distress and pain. Symptoms of anxiety are highly prevalent among gastrointestinal (GI) cancers patients. While opioid analgesia (pain reliever) succeeds in managing some symptoms, chronic opioid therapy is associated with significant adverse effects, underscoring a need to identify alternative interventions in the treatment of cancer associated pain. GI cancer patients frequently suffer from existential distress, and demoralization is a form of existential distress that is common among people with serious medical illnesses. Demoralization is characterized by poor coping with stressful events, and a loss of meaning and purpose in life. Talk therapy is a form of psychological treatment during which patients discuss problems, thoughts, and feelings. Ketamine has demonstrated efficacy for the treatment of depression, suicidality, and pain in non-cancer patients. This study may help researchers learn whether ketamine and talk therapy combined may improve psychosocial distress and pain, as well as decreases opioid analgesic use in patients with advanced GI cancer who take opioids for cancer-related pain.

clinicaltrials.gov ↗

Investigators

The overall officials registered on this study. Names that resolve to a FindMyKOL profile link to it; the rest are shown as registered.

Brian T Anderson, MD
University of California, San Francisco
Principal Investigator
clinicaltrials.gov ↗

A profile link is shown only when the registered name resolves to a person record with a confident, namesake-checked match; ambiguous names stay unlinked.

Sites

1 registered facility, with the per-site recruitment status where the registry publishes one. ClinicalTrials.gov does not publish per-site enrollment counts.

United States

University of California, San Francisco
San Francisco, California, United States

Site investigator names are published by ClinicalTrials.gov only while a study recruits, so completed studies list sites without them.

Drugs studied

The drug and biological interventions registered on this study, normalized to their RxNorm ingredient where possible.

Ketamine

Linked drugs open the directory filtered to KOLs working with them.clinicaltrials.gov ↗

Registration & key dates

Registry attributes as recorded on the ClinicalTrials.gov study record.

Start: 17 May 2024
Primary completion: 31 Jan 2025
Completion: 31 Jan 2025
Last update posted: 21 May 2025
Registered enrollment: 1
Registry id: NCT06077487

clinicaltrials.gov ↗

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov, via the CTTI AACT database, data as of 4 Nov 2026. Registry facts are shown as registered by the study sponsor; FindMyKOL does not interpret them.