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ASyMS©-C Project Summary - Please find the background, aims, methods, key findings and recommendations for this project
ASyMS©-SERAT Project Summary - Please find the background, aims, methods, key findings and recommendations for this project
About our work
In this study we are working with patients receiving chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer. People can experience a variety of symptoms during their treatment which they often have to manage themselves at home leaving them feeling anxious. Specific information about the most likely side-effects of treatment may reduce information overload at the start of a new treatment and help patients feel more in control of their treatment. The information gained from this study will also help the medical and nursing staff caring for these patients to more accurately predict the side-effects individual patients will experience and so select appropriate help to minimise those symptoms.
Aims
The main aim of the study is to develop a tool which can be used to predict symptoms experienced in patients with breast cancer receiving chemotherapy.
How will the study be carried out?
There will be two components to this study. The first part of the study will look at information collected from two previous studies carried out by CCRC to identify patterns of side-effects experienced by women having chemotherapy for breast cancer e.g. do side-effects get worse with each cycle or do some side-effects always occur together? This information will be used to develop the predictive tool which we will then further test in the second part of the study with another group of patients receiving chemotherapy for breast cancer to try to gauge how accurate that tool is in actually predicting potential side-effects.
Who will take part?
We will be inviting 40 patients who are starting chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer to take part in the study.
What will the patients have to do?
Patients who agree to take part in the study will be asked to complete a simple paper questionnaire about the side-effects they are experiencing on each day of their treatment, throughout the first four cycles of chemotherapy. The staff giving the chemotherapy will record further information such as results of blood tests for each patient and any additional symptoms these patients experienced not asked about in their daily questionnaire.
Why is this research important?
It is very important to carry out research with patients receiving chemotherapy for their cancer as the results may help to improve the information and support we give to cancer patients in the future.
Who are we working with?
The study was being carried out by a team of researchers from the Cancer Care Research Centre: Professor Nora Kearney, Roma Maguire, and Kathryn McCall. We are also collaborating with the Department of Mathematics and Computing Science, University of Stirling who will help us develop the predictive tool.
The clinical sites we will be working with are: NHS Highland, NHS Forth Valley & NHS Lanarkshire.
When will this study take place?
The study will run from September 2007-February 2008.
When will the final report be ready?
We hope to have the final report for this study available on this website in March 2008.
Funding Organisation
This research project is funded by Stirling University Research Enterprise (SURE)