Marie Curie invests £1 million in research to improve care for terminally ill

Marie Curie has awarded grants totaling nearly £1 million to five research projects investigating how care for terminally ill people and their families could be improved.

The grants were announced at the charity’s annual research conference, jointly held with the Palliative Care Section of the Royal Society of Medicine, today.

The projects to be funded will:

• study the cost and effect on quality of life of palliative daycare services at three centres which provide social and nursing care, as well as rehabilitation. The researchers aim to find out whether they represent value for money
  (the three year project led by Professor George Kernohan, University of Ulster, receives £284,000)

• study the experiences of carers and professionals in order to understand how more patients could be discharged from acute hospital for palliative care at home. The researchers hope to use their findings to improve carer support, preparation and involvement in decision making when patients go home
  (the 15 month project led by Dr Gunn Grande, University of Manchester, receives £90,000)

• provide evidence-based mass media resources to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans community to improve communications about end of life care for patients with advanced cancer
  (the two year project led by Dr Richard Harding, King’s College London, receives £110,059.63)

• create a ‘tool’ (an aide-memoire or checklist) to help clinicians to understand the needs of people with interstitial lung disease, which can causes severe breathlessness
  (the two year project led by Professor Miriam Johnson, University of Hull, receives £119,000)
  

• run a randomised controlled trial of employing an ultrasound scan to check the success of a procedure to eliminate pleural effusion - a cancerous condition where fluid occupies the space between the lungs and the ribcage. The research will enable doctors to find out whether the procedure has worked or other treatment is necessary
  (the four year project led by Dr Najib Rahman, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust, receives £376,000)

The grants were awarded on a competitive basis, under the Marie Curie Cancer Care Research Programme  . Researchers submitted detailed proposals for their work, with the best being identified by a panel of independent experts. The selection process was administered by Cancer Research UK.

Dr Bill Noble, Medical Director at Marie Curie, said: “We’re funding a diverse range of studies to address gaps in understanding of important research topics.

“We were delighted with the level of high-quality grant applications that we received – this not only demonstrates the growing recognition of the need for more research in this area but also the need for more investment if we are to improve the care provided to terminally ill people, their families and the professionals who support them.

“Marie Curie continues to be the major funder of palliative care research in the UK. No other charity targets this kind of research.

“Our research strategy aims to double our activity in palliative care research over the coming three years, although this can only be achieved through greater recognition of the importance of funding this kind of work.”

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