A few updates from the Wider Collaborative

Eila Watson, Mary Boulton, Eike Adams, Daniel Turner, Cancer Care Research Group, Oxford Brookes University.

The main focus of research activity within our group is on the role of primary care in providing cancer care, and the impact of cancer on family members. Current studies include: a study exploring the role of primary care in caring for patients with cancer (and their partners/family members) in the first three years following diagnosis; a collaborative study with the University of Oxford assessing the unmet health and supportive care needs of long tem (>=5 yrs) cancer survivors and their partners/family members; a systematic literature review of the effectiveness of education/information interventions targeting partners/ family members; and a collaborative multi-centre study (Oxford, Edinburgh, Cardiff) exploring the optimal role for primary care in the follow-up of men with prostate cancer. The outcomes from this latter project are now informing the development of a trial to test the effectiveness of a nurse-led, primary care-based intervention.

Other areas of research we are currently developing include addressing the late effects of pelvic radiotherapy and meeting the needs of long term survivors; the fertility-related information and decision support needs of younger women with breast cancer and, as part of a COMPASS collaboration, addressing the unmet supportive care needs of younger adult cancer survivors (aged 25-44).

Danny Kelly, Middlesex University.

Dr Danny Kelly has recently been involved in a project funded by CLIC Sargent with Professor Faith Gibson and Susie Pearce on the pre-diagnostic experiences of teenagers and young adults. 24 young people from 4 UK cancer centres took part in the study which adopted a narrative interview approach. The young peoples' accounts indicated a general lack of awareness of cancer risk in young people by general health professionals, the social and personal significance they attached to enduring symptoms and the risk of diagnostic delay, and poorer outcomes, in this age group. The findings were presented recently at ECCO-ESMO 15 in Berlin and were covered in the following piece in the Telegraph online:

A full report and publications are forthcoming.

Liz Forbat and Gill Hubbard, Cancer Care Research Centre, University of Stirling

Liz and Gill have written a book entitled “Better Cancer Care: A systemic approach to Practice”, which was published in September 2009. The book proposes a core message: cancer does not affect just individuals. Though the disease resides in individuals its effects are felt across far-reaching contexts and multiple relationships. Liz and Gill develop the use of systemic theory, to argue that taking a systemic approach to cancer means recognising the need to understand the entire context in which people experience and make sense of their illness. The book is available via amazon.co.uk

Gill and Liz also visited the American Cancer Society (ACS) to learn about their work in September 2009. ACS is a nationwide, community-based voluntary health organization. Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, the ACS has state divisions and more than 3,400 local offices.

Gill and Liz met with a broad range of people including behavioural scientists (social scientists working in health research), the health promotion team and epidemiologists. They also spent a day meeting with academics working at Emory University, the Centre for Disease Control and touring the Winship Cancer Centre. ACS is largely focused on large scale epidemiological studies, with cohorts for some of studies with over a million respondents. Gill and Liz are now developing further collaborative projects with colleagues in Atlanta, around health behaviours, survivorship and family caregivers.