Section of Oncology and Clinical Research

Galina Velikova

CANCER RESEARCH UK PSYCHOSOCIAL ONCOLOGY AND CLINICAL PRACTICE Research GROUP

Professor of Psychosocial & Medical Oncology/Honorary Consultant Medical Oncology

g.velikova@leeds.ac.uk

www.pogweb.org

The main research theme of the Psychosocial Oncology and Clinical Practice Research Group (POCPRG) is on patient-centred assessment of symptoms, psychological and social functioning and quality of life (QOL) in oncology practice with the aim of improving patient care.

We, and others, have shown that the use of computer- based technologies to evaluate patient-centred aspects of cancer care is routinely possible. The data can be readily provided to healthcare professionals resulting in improvement in patient well-being. The value of this approach to patient care has been proved in principle. Currently, we further develop and refine the approaches and seek to enhance their impact by:

• Improving the content of the evaluations.
• Developing them in ways that engage healthcare professional to ensure that they are widely and effectively used
• Demonstrate the enhanced value of these approaches in rigorous clinical research. The group had a successful quinquennial review by Cancer Research UK in June 2006. The past achievements and future research plans were rated at International Forefront.

Highlights from the work in 2006:

• Content analysis of doctor-patient communication in 860 audio-recorded outpatient consultations showed that provision of QOL data to oncologists led to increased discussion of non-specific symptoms, physical and emotional functioning.
• Completed recruitment into a randomized clinical trial, comparing routine completion of QOL questionnaires without providing information to physicians with a standard care control group in Leeds Cancer Centre, Bradford and Huddersfield Royal Infirmaries.
• Completed recruitment into two studies (crosssectional and longitudinal cohorts), evaluating the clinical meaning of the scores of the Social Difficulties Inventory.
• Performed Rasch analysis of performance and scaling characteristics of QOL instruments, screening instruments for psychological distress and Social Difficulties Inventory. Created an item bank for psychological distress measurement in cancer patients to form the basis for a short-form screening instrument and computer-adaptive testing for psychological distress in oncology practice.

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