Addenbrooke’s leads first UK research into cancer treatment outside hospital

Addenbrooke’s specialists are leading the country’s first research into how cancer patients can benefit from treatment outside hospital, either at a local GP surgery or in their own home.

 

The research team needs to recruit 390 chemotherapy patients over the next year. A third of the volunteers will be treated at home, with another third attending one of three units at GP surgeries in Cambridge, Haverhill and Bury St Edmunds. The final group will be treated at either Addenbrooke’s or West Suffolk Hospital. Specialist nurses from Addenbrooke’s will travel to patients to administer medication and manage their care.

 

 

“It’s all about quality of life,” says Dr Pippa Corrie, the consultant oncologist in charge of the Outreach project. “If you can have chemotherapy outside hospital, it gives you more control over when you have your treatment and how you fit it in. There’s the convenience factor – you haven’t got to travel as far – and you don’t have to sit around waiting. We’re proud of our hospital, but we know that not all of our cancer patients need to be treated on site.”

 

One of the first people to take part was Yve Richardson. She had chemotherapy at home in Cambridge after being diagnosed with gall bladder cancer – and her husband Bill thinks it was exactly what she needed.

 

“Yve was a very home-loving person,” he says. “When she found out she’d been chosen for this research, it was fantastic to see the expression on her face.

 

“It meant she could sit and relax in the conservatory during her treatment, and I could stay with her. If she felt groggy afterwards then she didn’t have to travel.

 

“Our house didn’t feel as though it was being turned into a hospital – the nurses brought everything with them and took it away after each session. They were so accommodating, and we were never worried about safety because they were chemotherapy specialists. They were the same people who would have treated her if she’d been at Addenbrooke’s.

 

“Yve told her friends it was better than she could imagine private treatment, and she was convinced that it extended her life.”

 

Dr Corrie points out that there are also benefits for Addenbrooke’s – and for other patients who are too ill to be treated in the community: “If you can stay out of hospital, and the results are just as good, then it makes sense to offer that choice. It means that we can keep resources at the hospital free for patients who really need them. We expect this to be an appealing option – so we’re doing the research to make sure that treatment outside the hospital is safe, that the NHS can support it, and that it benefits our patients.”

 

Patients can volunteer to take part if they are undergoing one of a wide range of cancer treatments for a minimum of 12 weeks. Not everyone is suitable, so doctors will check that the project is right for anyone who puts themselves forward. Participants need to be reasonably fit, independent and mobile.

 

For this research, volunteers will be allocated to one of the three treatment groups at random – but if the results of the study are positive, patients could be able to choose for themselves in future.

 

To find out more, patients should get in touch with Victoria Wood at the Cambridge Cancer Trials Centre on 01223 348 398, or ask their treatment team to put them forward for the research.

 

 

 

 

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