HHTU News Roundup

Yorkshire Cancer Research walk

Researchers, people affected by cancer and charity supporters are taking part in a Yorkshire-wide baton relay as part of this year’s We Walk for Yorkshire challenge. Throughout May, the Baton for Yorkshire will pass through 35 locations across the region, symbolising the 35,000 people diagnosed with cancer in Yorkshire each year.

We have 4 current clinical trials funded by YCR and another 4 data analysis studies in the Data Safe Haven. NeoRehab is one of the clinical trials and is exploring how improving fitness in people with lung cancer can influence their surgical outcomes.

It was an honour for Team NeoRehab to help kick off the baton relay, with Chief Investigator Dr Cecilia Pompili receiving the baton from the Active Together team at the start of this month‑long journey. Dr Pompili and NeoRehab Trial Manager Grant Constable then completed the next leg of the relay, handing the baton on to Yorkshire Cancer Research supporters Smailes Goldie.

IMPACT-W Update

IMPACT W is led by Laura Hermann a HHTU based PhD staff member and the study is aiming to improve the recruitment of women to clinical trials. The study continues to recruit well, with two additional staff focus groups completed, bringing the total to nine staff participants and 14 participants from the general public recruited to date. There are now five sites actively identifying participants for the study across primary, secondary, mental health and community healthcare settings. These participants are clinical staff members and also people that have declined to take part in research. We are really interested to see what the results of Laura’s investigations are.

Results paper published

A results paper from the Lincolnshire POACHER study, for which our Director Judith Cohen was a co-applicant, has now been published. HHTU also supported the study by providing the electronic data capture platform through REDCap Cloud.

The randomized controlled trial investigated whether organic disease may be masquerading as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). IBS is a chronic relapsing disorder for which there are currently limited diagnostic investigations when patients present with IBS-like symptoms. However, around 50% of patients do not improve following the standard diagnostic approach, suggesting that alternative underlying conditions may be missed.

Participants in the study were randomized to receive either standard care based on National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines or an intervention. The intervention involved research nurse-led structured investigations designed to identify organic pathology including treatment protocols targeting abnormal investigation results.

The study found that among 74% of intervention participants who completed the intervention, appropriate treatment of alternative diagnoses led to sustained clinical improvement.

BREEZE-2 recruitment competition

And finally we couldn’t not share the very cute spring version of BREEZE-2 recruitment competition. Well done to the Wolverhampton site for securing first place. We are already looking forward to seeing what the summer recruitment competiotion will look like.