Group metacognitive therapy for anxiety/depression in cancer survivors
Research type
Research Study
Full title
An open trial of group metacognitive therapy for anxiety and depression in cancer survivors
IRAS ID
227681
Contact name
Peter Fisher
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 3 months, 0 days
Research summary
Survival rates in cancer continue to improve, with over 2 million adult cancer survivors in the UK, projected to increase to 4 million by 2030. Around 25% of these survivors require treatment for clinical levels of emotional distress. Current pharmacological treatments are not very effective and are not well tolerated by patients, who prefer psychological treatments. However, meta-analyses of well-controlled studies of psychological treatments indicate that these achieve only small effect sizes. Reflecting this limited efficacy in the face of the need for psychological treatment, the National Cancer Survivorship Research Initiative highlighted development and evaluation of practically feasible interventions for depression and anxiety in cancer survivors as an urgent research priority. It is recognised that current influential psychotherapeutic approaches need to be modified to meet the specific needs associated with cancer. However modifications have been pragmatic rather than theory-driven and have not improved efficacy.
Our study addresses the stages of ‘development’ and ‘piloting and feasibility’ in Medical Research Council guidance on intervention development, albeit with a relatively well-defined starting point given existing evidence for efficacy of meta-cognitive therapy (MCT) in other settings and promising preliminary evidence of applicability in cancer. We will conduct a phase I open trial to test the potential efficacy of group MCT in cancer survivors and the hypothesised causal metacognitive mechanisms underpinning treatment response. The evidence from this open trial will therefore allow us to progress to the next step in translating group MCT for cancer survivors: a randomised phase II controlled trial against the current gold standard approach, namely cognitive behaviour therapy.
REC name
North West - Liverpool Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/NW/0489
Date of REC Opinion
4 Sep 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion