Over 1,000 cancer patients in clinical research

Dr Steve Woby

Over 1,000 cancer patients being treated at hospitals run by The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust have voluntarily taken part in important cancer research as part of a number of National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) studies.

Since 1 April 2011, over 1,000 patients diagnosed with cancer have been recruited by the Trust to participate in cancer trials. In 2008/09, only 88 patients participated in a NIHR cancer study. This year (2011/12), the Trust expects over 1,200 patients in total to take part in a high quality cancer study.

NIHR studies are high quality clinical studies that benefit from the infrastructure provided by the Clinical Research Network in England.

Dr Steve Woby, Head of research and development at The Pennine Acute Trust said: “This level of participation in cancer research is really significant and encouraging. It means that over half of our Trust patients diagnosed with cancer took part in a high quality study. Patient participation in cancer research has increased enormously within the Trust over recent years.

“The Trust has ten dedicated cancer research nurses working across its four hospital sites. This has made a real difference to the studies the Trust can support. We’ve also been able to increase not just the number of studies we carry out but also the complexity of the studies.

“Our research nurses are very much part of the multidisciplinary teams and work closely with their investigators to identify suitable patients and identify areas for new research. They do a fantastic job with dedication. The Trust is committed to providing patients with the opportunity to take part in high quality cancer research studies. Only by carrying out research into "what works" can we continually improve treatment for patients.”

The Trust has increased patient participation in cancer research by opening up a number of new cancer studies across all four of the Trust’s hospital sites spanning a number of tumour groups.

For the first time last year, the Trust was able to open up a series of studies at Rochdale Infirmary. This provided Rochdale patients with the opportunity to participate in high quality cancer research.

The Trust has also opened new studies within tumour groups that were previously “under researched” within the Trust. This includes five new studies in haematology and cancer studies in gynaecology for the first time.

With additional funding support from the Greater Manchester Comprehensive Local Research Network, the Trust has also recruited a research nurse to support colorectal research. This additional support has resulted in over 200 patients with colorectal cancer participating in cancer research – this represents a 2.5 fold increase on 2010/11. 

The news comes ahead of World Cancer Day 2012 which takes place on Saturday (4 February). The day, organised by the Union of International Cancer Control (UICC), takes place every year. This year’s theme is ’Together it is possible’.