Marie Curie awards £1 million to palliative and end of life care research

Marie Curie Cancer Care has awarded more than £1 million to seven projects from the Marie Curie Cancer Care Research Programme which aims to improve end of life care for people with cancer and other life-limiting conditions.

The research projects cover two themes from the second call for funding including; exploring variation in care at the end of life and controlling symptoms in the last year of life.

A wide range of studies have been funded from looking at the end of life care needs and experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans older people and the development of equitable service provision for this group to looking at the changing care and support needs of people with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and their carers.

Subject to ethical approval, the following seven research projects have been funded:

Professor Alexander Molassiotis, University of Manchester
'Pilot feasibility randomised trial of a novel non-pharmacological intervention for the management of the respiratory distress symptom cluster - breathlessness, cough, fatigue - in patients with advanced lung cancer'
Duration of project: 20 months
Budget: £175k

Dr Kathryn Almack, University of Nottingham
'End of life care: the experiences and needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) elders'
Duration of project: 24 months
Budget: £157k

Professor Marie Fallon, University of Edinburgh
'KPS (Ketamine in Pain Study): A randomised double-blind controlled trial of ketamine versus'
placebo in conjunction with best pain management in neuropathic pain in cancer patients
Duration of project: 24 months
Budget: £98k

Dr Steven Oliver, University of York
'Variation in the care of patients with bowel and blood cancers at the end of life: a feasibility study evaluating the potential of data linkage in the National Cancer Data Repository'
Duration of project: 12 months
Budget: £74k (TBC)

Dr Anthony Byrne, Cardiff University
'A study of quality of care needs for patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, and their carers, across disease trajectory'
Duration of project: 24 months
Budget: £111k

Dr Christine Campbell and Professor Scott Murray, University of Edinburgh
'Identifying patients who would benefit from palliative care, irrespective of diagnosis: the development and feasibility testing of a primary care-based intervention'
Duration of project: 24 months 
Budget: £117k

Dr Morag Farquhar, University of Cambridge
'End of life care in advanced Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD): identifying,
understanding and meeting the changing care and support needs of patients and their carers'
Duration of project: 36 months
Budget: £291k (TBC)

Watch the 2012 research award winners talk about their projects

Dr Teresa Tate, Medical Adviser to Marie Curie Cancer Care, said: “These are the second grant awards to have been made from this research programme. We are pleased that such a diverse range of projects have been funded to help to address the knowledge gap in palliative and end of life research. We look forward to the results, so that we can continue to provide the evidence to inform better end of life care for patients, carers and families.”

Marie Curie launched the £3 million Marie Curie Cancer Care Research Programme, administered by Cancer Research UK, in 2010, committing up to £1 million of research funding per year for three years. In April this year the programme was extended for another three years with an additional £3million of funding to improve end of life care for those with cancer or other advanced progressive life threatening conditions.

For more information on the Marie Curie Cancer Care Research Programme, please contact Dr Sabine Best, Research Manager at sabine.best@mariecurie.org.uk.

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