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Cancer Information and Support Centre
The Cancer Information and Support Centre is an informal, friendly drop in centre for cancer patients, their family and friends, to access professional help to support them through a difficult time. They provide support on both a practical and emotional level.
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£160,000
for this year
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Complementary Therapy
Through the Cancer Information and Support Centre, complementary therapies are available to patients. This service is provided by the Cavendish Centre and supported by Weston Park Hospital Cancer Charity.
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£20,000
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Survive and Thrive
Statistically, one in every 900 young people in the UK has survived cancer and with increasingly effective treatments, this figure is expected to rise to 1 in 250 over the next five years. As many as two thirds of childhood cancer survivors will experience some form of after-effect from their treatment and for between 5% and 10% this will be life threatening. Cruelly, this can occur 5, 10 or even 15 years after treatment.
Up to the age of 16, childhood cancer survivors here in Sheffield are supported by a ‘late effects’ clinic run within Sheffield Children’s NHS Trust. Although this support is offered to children there is no specific ‘late effects’ care provided for adult cancer survivors. There is also no research into the best practice for the provision of such care for either adults or children.
Weston Park Hospital Cancer Charity currently supports a ‘Survive and Thrive’ research team based at Weston Park Hospital Cancer Research Centre. The physical proximity of the different hospitals, the University and the working practices already established means this team is uniquely situated to carry out research into the best way to provide care and support for both children and adults who have survived cancer. In addition to their own research, the team will pull together the scattered strands of research which has been developed elsewhere in the country and present a cohesive overview. The Survive and Thrive project is the only one of its kind in the world outside North America and this project is a huge step forward in the care of people who have already suffered so much.
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£562,083
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Patients with cancer receive excellent management for their initial disease resulting in better survival rates for some types of cancers, particularly in young people. Unfortunately some cancer treatments are associated with long-term side effects termed “late effects”. Common late effects include anxiety, depression, second cancers, heart, lung and hormone problems. The importance of follow-up care to look out for late effects is increasingly recognised but has been limited partly because cancer doctors are too busy dealing with patients who are acutely ill. Also, existing follow-up programmes tend to focus on detecting cancer recurrence. Currently there are no widely accepted standards of practice of follow-up in the adult cancer setting. The aims of this proposal are to develop and test the tools for delivering clinically appropriate follow-up care based on the patients’ individual risk of late effects, with the intention of designing an intervention study for which funding will be sought after the pilot phase is complete.
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£188,840
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Genetic factors affecting breast cancer progression
Although many women survive breast cancer, it still causes 2% of all female deaths. The research team at Weston Park Hospital Cancer Research Centre have already identified some genes that are associated with breast cancer that may also affect breast cancer survival. The aim of this research is to identify the genetic factors which cause the cancer to be aggressive and fatal in some women, and so seek a remedy.
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£72,207
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Research into ‘acquired chemo resistance’ in lung cancer
In certain types of lung cancer (small cell lung cancer) patients develop resistance to chemotherapy and so lose access to a vital weapon in the fight against the disease. This research will look at how the resistance develops and how it can be overcome.
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£73,800
Over 3 years
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Breast Cancer Aftercare – Preparing patients for discharge from routine hospital follow up (PREP)
This follows on from a previous study (CA83 also funded by the Cancer Charity) which explored the thoughts, feelings and experiences of breast cancer patients and their partners when approaching discharge from routine hospital follow up. This new work will involve developing a new care package for patients to help them cope better with discharge from routine hospital follow-up. This package will include counselling sessions aimed at reducing anxiety and emotional distress.
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£86,406
18mths
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Molecular Characterisation of Soft Tissue Sarcomas – a genetic research project
The Sheffield Sarcoma Group is respected as one of the best in the UK. An excellent multidisciplinary team has been established and two of the applicants for funding are international experts in this uncommon group of cancers. Preliminary studies (previously funded by the Cancer Charity) have already identified putative genetic abnormalities and these require confirmation - which will be provided by this larger study. This genetic research project has been defined as not only being of benefit to those suffering from these rare cancers, the findings may have far reaching implications in the entire field of cancer research.
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£132,383
For three years
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‘Identifying novel genes regulating development of uveal melanoma metastases’ - uveal melanomas are aggressive eye tumours causing the death of 50% of patients.
Uveal melanomas spread to the liver, at which point survival is a matter of months. Chromosome 8 changes are most closely linked to the process, but the relevant target genes still need to be identified. This study will identify candidate genes and look at whether blocking their actions could form the basis of new treatments.
This melanoma in the eye is uncommon, and Sheffield is a supra-specialist centre for this tumour – the investigating team are recognised as leaders in this area of genetics studies and findings in this research could be relevant to the much commoner skin melanoma.
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£159,948
over 3 years
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‘A pilot study to define epidemiological and biological features of cutaneous melanoma’ – research into skin cancer
Melanoma is the most aggressive skin cancer and its incidence is increasing. Though some risk factors (sunlight, family history) are well established, the factors responsible for the dramatic rise in incidence are poorly understood. A better understanding of the causes will enable the identification of individuals at the highest risk, offering them interventions or entry into new drugs trials or surveillance programmes. Questions on sun exposure, family history and other factors will be linked with laboratory work looking in detail at blood samples and tumour specimens.
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£42,163
for 1 year
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Activity co-ordinator for the Teenage Cancer Unit
It is recognised that cancer in young people presents particular complex problems, not least of which is the isolation from peers and the activities they would be taking part in if they were well. Other Teenage Cancer Units have met this need by appointing an activity co-ordinator. This post provides a non-clinical person who can support the patients and their families to maintain as normal a life as possible whilst the young person is undergoing treatment enabling them to re-integrate into their peer group once treatment is complete. The co-ordinator will work with the young people establishing a programme to support and entertain them while they are in hospital, arrange activities for them and their peers to take part in and to support their participation when consulting them about the development on the unit.
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£27,000
over 3 years
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Image guided radiotherapy (IGRT) treatment using an on-board (OBI) system
Tumours move. They change size and shape during treatment and with lung tumours, there is the added complication of the movement of the chest wall moving the tumour during breathing.
New technologies are available that can capture 3D images during the treatment process and can successfully adapt the treatment to track the movement of the tumour. This motion tracking and adaptive radiotherapy technique can lead to improved target dose coverage and reduction in normal tissue damage.
The system was delivered and installed on 25 April 2008 and is currently been used for clinical work. We are still fundraising to raise funds for this project.
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payment
£340,000
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Lecturer in Image Guided Radiotherapy to conduct research at Weston Park – 2 days P/T
Medical imaging lies at the heart of recent advances in radiotherapy planning and delivery. We are funding a University lecturer to be employed to conduct a range of image –guided radiotherapy research projects based at Weston Park Hospital. The lecturer will be responsible for a number of existing high profile research projects and for initiation further cutting-edge collaborative research proposals. This work builds upon experience gained from recent PET and MRI research projects for head and neck and lung cancer and includes potential collaboration with researchers in Belfast and the USA.
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£70,944
over 3 years
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Tumour Cell bone cell interactions
Although modern cancer treatments have reduced the number of patients who develop secondary bone cancer (bone metastases) more effective treatments to prevent this common and currently incurable consequence of cancer are still urgently needed. We do not know enough about the processes involved when tumour cells spread from the original tumours and go on to form new tumours in bone. In order to find better treatments for patients with bone metastases we need to understand more about how cancer spreads to the skeleton. In this project we will investigate how tumour cells change when they come into contact with cells in bone, and how the tumour cells may cause changes in the bone itself. We will also investigate what happens when we use combinations of drugs to target either the cancer cells or the bone cells, and determine if this can slow down tumour growth in bone.
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£118,984
over 3 years
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Cancer Research Centre Programme Grant –Infrastructure (continuing funding)
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£807,898
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Chemotherapy Research Nurse
Use of antibody treatments in the management of cancer is one of the biggest treatment changes in recent years. These antibodies are targeted at specific receptors on the cell surface and can block a particular cell pathway but the use of these new drugs in clinical trails requires specialist care during administration due to their potential side effects. We are funding a chemotherapy nurse for a 12 month period to enable as many patients as possible to have access right now to these new and innovative therapies.
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£58,303
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Once cancer has spread from the original site to other parts of the body (metastasise) it can no longer be cured. If we are going to be able to prevent patients from developing metastatic disease we need to understand how cancer cells start to spread. Only when we know how this happens will we be able to develop treatments that stop cancer metastasis. Breast and prostate cancer commonly spread to the skeleton, and in this project we will investigate how combining two types of drugs may prevent this. By giving one drug that kills tumour cells (chemotherapy agent) in combination with one drug that strengthens bone (bisphosphonate) we hope to be able to stop tumour cells that reach bone from growing to form a new tumour. In studies we have done previously we have found that combination treatment is very effective at reducing tumour growth, and now we will establish how the drugs actually work when given together. We will also investigate when treatment should be given in order to have the greatest effect. The results from this project may help us improve the treatment for patients with advanced breast and prostate cancer, two large groups of patients who currently have limited survival.
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£40,500
over 3 years
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Hydatidiform mole is a rare form of cancer affecting pregnancy. Geography and ethnicity affect the number of these cancer cases. In the UK, molar pregnancy occurs in every 714 live births. Weston Park Hospital is one of two centres in the UK that treat this cancer.
Diet can contribute to development of cancers and studies have demonstrated that poor intake of the vitamin, folic acid, increases risk of developing cervical and bowel cancer.
Folic acid is important in maintaining DNA structure. DNA is a protein that exists in every living cell, and contains genetic material that is passed from our parents so that our cells can develop and function normally. Low folic acid in a body, can lead to damage to DNA, hence causing certain cells to turn cancerous.
There is early evidence that adding folic acid to diet in early pregnancy may protect patients against molar pregnancy.
We are proposing to study the effects of folic acid and vitamin B12 in patients with molar pregnancy, in order to prove their potential and understand the cancer better.
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£31,376
over 2 years
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A research project to support a national trial into oesophageal cancer.
The trial protocol stipulates that all eligible patients must have an echocardiogram prior to study entry. If the patients have to wait for NHS echocardiogram at the Hallamshire, they will have to wait around 3 months. The cancer at this stage is curable and neither the patients nor their consultants are willing to wait 3 months before embarking on treatment. The standard treatment for this set of patients is pre-operative chemotherapy; a previous trail has shown that this improves survival.
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£2,640
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Pizza evenings for TCU. Monthly and ongoing
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£480
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Relaxation for patients receiving radiotherapy
Aroma Stones x 8 (one for each machine in the dept) Aromatherapy oils, 3 per machine. The current service offering complementary therapies for radiotherapy patients over at the CISC has been extremely popular and because of their patients will benefit from, appreciate and enjoy a more relaxing environment for their treatment
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£280
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Breast board for Radiotherapy
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£3,000
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Trialling of new equipment for a less invasive system for head and neck patients smoothing the process for these patients at a difficult time
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£2,908.12
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To purchase cotton scarves for the Headways Service. They would like to offer each new patient who accesses the Headways Service a free scarf. They currently cost £2 each. It is felt by doing this they would be making a good will gesture on behalf of the hospital and it would make the service available to everybody. This practice already exists in Doncaster.
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£2,000.00
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Staff Training
The Cancer Information and Support Centre help to support patients on a practical and emotional level. The centre requires staff training to help patients complete benefit forms. This training is vital to allow the patient to have the professional HMRC help within the hospital compound.
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£350
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To purchase high back chairs and three pictures for the radiotherapy department
At present the radiotherapy waiting lounge has low back chairs. Some patients have experienced discomfort using the low back chairs and would benefit from high back chairs to allow them to sit in comfort before their treatment. The paediatric recovery room is used primarily for children receiving are radiotherapy and who need anaesthetic. The room currently has no pictures on the wall which makes it look clinical and cold. Pictures would help the room feel friendlier and homely which would put the children and their patients more at ease.
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£902
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Improve and widen access to molar pregnancy support website: www.molarpregnancy.co.uk
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£1,000
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Academic research project to improve support for patients with spinal cord compression
A vital survey to be carried out to assess patients with spinal cord compression care and needs. It is important to give patients to best possible care and without a survey we do not know what personal problems to address. This funding ensures that patients at Weston Park Hospital can receive the best possible care.
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£1,276.60
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Providing magazines and display racks for Main Reception in Weston Park Hospital
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£1,000
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To purchase a tissue culture incubator for growing cancer cells
All of the research projects depend on cancer cells that are grown in a laboratory. Cancer cells are grown using a special incubator which ensures the right temperature and humidity. One of the incubators has broken and they are in desperate need to replace this vital piece of equipment.
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£2,961
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