The Role of Frailty in Patients with Multiple Myeloma

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    A single-centre prospective study to explore the role of frailty in patients with multiple myeloma

  • IRAS ID

    209727

  • Contact name

    John Burthem

  • Contact email

    John.Burthem@mft.nhs.uk

  • Sponsor organisation

    Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

  • Duration of Study in the UK

    2 years, 0 months, 0 days

  • Research summary

    Multiple myeloma is principally a disorder of elderly people with half of the patients diagnosed being older than 70 years. Approximately 30% of the patients are frail, and following treatment have high rate of drug-related toxicity, poor quality of life and a dismal outcome.

    This study aims to explore the markers of frailty in a “real world” population of MM patients, and to monitor changes to those markers throughout treatment and follow-up. Clinical, physical and biological parameters will be collected by interviewing the patients, via questionnaires, physical tests and blood analyses. All these will be done during routine visits of patient’s care pathway minimising the impact on patient lifestyles. The patients will then be stratified according to the geriatric assessment into 3 groups (fit, non-fit, frail) and the changes to these parameters will be compared within these 3 groups throughout the treatment and the follow-up phase of minimum 24 months. The markers of frailty will also be measured in a group of healthy subjects and the results will be compared with those of patients with MM.

    The characterisation of markers of frailty will be a starting point to develop strategies to reduce the causes of frailty, hence reduce the treatment-related toxicity, to improve quality of life and eventually outcome for patients with MM.

  • REC name

    East Midlands - Derby Research Ethics Committee

  • REC reference

    16/EM/0389

  • Date of REC Opinion

    1 Sep 2016

  • REC opinion

    Favourable Opinion