Cancer-related fatigue is a symptom experienced by a lot of patients with advanced cancer. It is defined as a persistent sense of physical, emotional, and/or cognitive exhaustion related to cancer or its treatment. Fatigue is not consistent with how tired you would expect to feel from activities and interferes with usual functioning. There are some treatment options available for cancer-related fatigue, but there is no gold standard treatment. This means there is no one treatment that is known to be the best option. Some current non-medication treatments include exercise, rest, counselling, support groups, and mindfulness-based therapy. For patients with advanced illness, these types of treatments and existing medications (e.g., antidepressants, ADHD medication, hormones) can be challenging because they can take a lot of time to work, may require constant monitoring, or can cause side effects such as dizziness, decreased appetite, abdominal pain, and heart palpitations (a throbbing sensation in your chest). Modafinil is a type of drug for daytime sleepiness called a stimulant. Studies show that it may promote wakefulness and could play a role in treating cancer-related fatigue. Modafinil has been studied in some people and seems promising, but it is not clear if it can offer better results than existing treatments. This trial is looking to test the use of modafinil to relieve cancer-related fatigue in patients with advanced cancer. This study is only recruiting participants who are current patients at The Ottawa Hospital in Ottawa, Ontario.
Cancer Only Study