MSC TRANSFORM V2.5
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Development, refinement and acceptability of a single clinical screening tool to detect Malnutrition, Sarcopenia and Cachexia in Older Adults with Cancer
IRAS ID
260177
Contact name
Alex Bullock
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Hull
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 6 months, 24 days
Research summary
Older people are more likely to get cancer, but less likely to have or cope with cancer treatments. They are also more likely to have problems with their eating and keeping their muscles healthy. Cancer can also cause weight loss and weaker muscles, so older people with cancer have several reasons that can make it harder for them to stay well, and cope with cancer treatments.
Testing for these problems is time-consuming, the tests include similar questions and are not tailored to older people. Also, we do not know how people feel about being tested for these problems.
The aim of this study is to find out if we can test older people with cancer for eating problems (malnutrition), weak muscles (sarcopenia) or cancer-related weight loss (cachexia) at the same time, in a way that is easy for patients and clinicians.We will ask older people with cancer to complete standard questions about their eating, muscle health and cancer-related weight loss. Simple measures of muscle health will be taken. We will then see if parts of the tests can be combined to produce a single, shorter test to check for all three problems for use in everyday care.
We will also follow participants up to see if the tests predict how well they do. Once we have the short tool, we will invite a small number of patients to try the tool out with a member of their medical team.
We will invite about 15 patients and 5 to 10 clinicians to take part in interviews to discover their views and experiences of being asked/asking about these issues, and the tests involved.
At the end of the study, we will have a short clinically usable test that can identify all three issues, ready for testing in a larger study.REC name
London - Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/LO/1479
Date of REC Opinion
4 Nov 2019
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion