North of England Women’s Diet and ActivitY After Breast Cancer Trial
Research type
Research Study
Full title
North of England Women’s Diet and ActivitY After Breast Cancer Trial (NEW DAY-ABC)
IRAS ID
243296
Contact name
John M Saxton
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Northumbria University
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 6 months, 0 days
Research summary
Being overweight after hormone positive breast cancer treatment increases the chance of cancer returning: extra body weight (mainly fat) leads to higher levels of oestrogen/harmful substances in the blood. There is lack of lifestyle support for overweight women after breast cancer. We will work with breast cancer patients to design a practical way to provide individually tailored lifestyle support to help them to lose weight. The first stage of this research (for which we are applying for ethics approval) will be qualitative focus groups, in which we will recruit overweight women treated for hormone positive breast cancer up to 18 months previously, in 3 phases as follows: (i) Initial scoping: Four focus groups (N=5 women in each; 2 in Newcastle, 2 in Sheffield) to elicit views on specific lifestyle support needs, motivation to manage weight and engage in physical activity relative to their diagnosis and current situation, explore perceived challenges to managing body weight, appreciation of lifestyle risk factors for disease recurrence, common motivational issues and set-backs that are most likely to occur, and how women can be best supported to overcome them; (ii) Co-design of lifestyle support intervention: We will engage women in the design of a desirable/feasible solution to meet their needs. An iterative approach, via two successional focus groups in Newcastle and Sheffield (N=10-15 women in each) will enable the development and refinement of intervention ideas. Use of modern technologies (e.g. social media, smart phone Apps and PA trackers) as remote support strategies will also be explored; (iii) additional focus groups/roundtable discussions will be undertaken with 10-20 clinicians and health professionals (oncologist, surgeon, breast care nurses, chemotherapy nurse, and physiotherapists) to understand their experiences of engaging patients in discussions about weight management. Qualitative data will be used to inform an intervention for testing via a RCT.
REC name
North West - Preston Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/NW/0400
Date of REC Opinion
2 Jul 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion