Funding announced for research that will help people to live well with advanced cancer

The Irish Cancer Society and All Ireland Institute of Hospice and Palliative Care have awarded funding for two research projects aiming to improve the lives of people with advanced cancer.

The €63,000 investment recognises both the increased numbers of people living with advanced cancer and the growing need to identify better ways to improve their support and care.

The research projects are being respectively led by Dr Emer Guinan, from Trinity College Dublin, and Dr Cathal Cadogan, from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.

Dr Guinan will study the link between daily exercise and the risk of fractures in people who have cancer that has spread to the bone. This research will examine the relationship between widely used clinical measures of fracture risk and daily exercise participation. It is hoped that findings will identify people at lowest and highest risk of fracture from exercise and therefore aims to improve safety for people with cancers that have invaded their bones by providing better personalised insight for health care professionals prescribing exercise.

Dr Cadogan will investigate and develop new guidance on prescribing the most suitable combination medicine doses for people living with cancer who have palliative care needs. Proper control of cancer symptoms, such as pain, is vital if the quality of life of those with advanced cancers is to be improved. However, because patients will usually be already receiving a number of medicines for treating other (non-cancerous) illnesses, treatment may benefit from guidelines aimed at helping doctors to tailor and optimise the use of all of the medicines required improving patient quality of life.

Speaking about the awards, Dr Robert O’Connor, Head of Research with the Irish Cancer Society said, “Despite advances in care and treatment, every hour of the day another family loses a loved one to cancer in Ireland. There is much we have to do to learn how best to ensure that, even in advanced stages, every patients gets the greatest opportunity for the best quality of life possible. We hope these projects will identify new ways to further improve care at such a vulnerable time.”

Karen Charnley, Director of All Ireland Institute of Hospice and Palliative Care, said: “The All Ireland Institute of Hospice and Palliative Care aims to advance education, research and practice to improve the palliative care experience of people with life-limiting conditions and their families. We are delighted to collaborate with the Irish Cancer Society to invest in research that will directly improve quality of life for people with advanced cancer and palliative care needs.”

This announcement is happening during Palliative Care Week 2018 (9-15 September 2018) which is an initiative of the Institute to raise public awareness of palliative care and how it can support people with a life-limiting illness to live well and achieve the best quality of life as their illness progresses.

For more information about Palliative Care Week visit www.thepalliativehub.com.