RESOLVE: Improved symptom management in advanced cancer. Version 1.0
Research type
Research Study
Full title
RESOLVE: Improving health status and symptom experience for people living with advanced cancer
IRAS ID
280269
Contact name
Lucy Ziegler
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Leeds
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
Palliative care is defined by the World Health Organisation as ‘an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problems associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual’. However, in the weeks or months before they die, people with advanced cancer often experience pain, breathlessness or fatigue-exhaustion. We have carried out interviews and focus groups with 62 healthcare professionals who work in hospices to identify professional-perceived barriers and facilitators to delivering effective symptom managemenT. Qualitative data analysis has identified key themes which have been developed into a preliminary, novel logic process of effective symptom management in palliative care. We now need to discuss our findings with patients and people important to them (e.g. informal carers, friends or family) to determine whether our interpretation matches their experience, identify and make adjustments to the model if required. Adult patients with advanced disease and their carers will be recruited from our research partner hospices; St Gemma’s, (Leeds), Wheatfield’s (Leeds), Marie Curie (Bradford), Kirkwood hospice (Huddersfield) and St Luke’s hospice (Sheffield). Participants will take part in an interview (face to face, by telephone or video consultation) or a focus group (in person) which will last approximately one hour.
Our ultimate aim is to develop interventions to enable better management of troublesome symptoms in patients with advanced disease and provide better support to their carers. Therefore, in the future, hospice staff and patients and carers will be involved in development of the intervention through a series of workshops or interviews (University of Leeds MREC 18-065).
Following this there will be a small scale implementation and evaluation within hospices (a future application for ethical approval).REC name
North of Scotland Research Ethics Committee 1
REC reference
20/NS/0086
Date of REC Opinion
30 Jul 2020
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion