Drug exposure, smoking, the metabolic syndrome & melanoma survival.
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A study of the effect of incidental drug exposures, smoking and the metabolic syndrome on survival from melanoma.
IRAS ID
140050
Contact name
Julia A Newton Bishop
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Leeds
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 10 months, 25 days
Research summary
Cancer patients are often prescribed drugs intended to treat incidental medical conditions. These drugs may have unexpected effects on host-tumour interaction and therefore survival. It is possible that some of those effects might be beneficial, and some harmful (leading to an increased death rate).
This project will link data from the National Cancer Registration Service (NCRS), Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data, data from the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (LTHT) digital records (patient pathway management system - PPM) and records of drugs prescribed in general practice (provided by SystmOne @ www.researchone.com) in order to trace melanoma patients to ascertain whether there is any evidence of an effect of drug intake on survival across the melanoma population.
In addition, there is evidence that obesity is a strong risk factor for cancer. One of the causal mechanisms is thought to be because fat cells generate proteins that cause white cells in the blood to produce a harmful sort of chronic inflammation. This syndrome is known as Metabolic Syndrome. This chronic inflammation is also thought to increase the risk of cancer recurring after diagnosis. Some blood tests are thought to indicate the presence of chronic inflammation, e.g. the test for C-reactive protein (CRP). We will therefore also investigate the association with outcome of blood test results from SystmOne and the LTHT PPM system, which are related to chronic inflammation and medical diagnoses. We will use the clinical data to look at the effect of measures of obesity related chronic inflammation, via association with co-morbidities such as diabetes, increased body mass index, increased blood pressure and blood test results on survival in melanoma patients.
The project seeks approval to link the three sources of data to generate a large pseudonymized data set for analysis of the effects of drug ingestion and obesity in melanoma patients.
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Bradford Leeds Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/YH/0074
Date of REC Opinion
11 May 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion