HIDDen study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Hidden: Hospice In-patient Deep vein thrombosis Detection study
IRAS ID
180455
Contact name
Miriam Johnson
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Hull
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Up to one in five cancer patients will develop blood clots in their veins known as deep vein thrombosis (DVT). A clot may break off from the DVT and travel to the lungs; known as a pulmonary embolism (PE). We do not know the true number of DVTS and PE as they may not cause symptoms. Neither do we know whether apparently “silent” DVTs, if untreated, go away by themselves, or go on to cause serious problems like swollen, painful legs (DVT), or chest pain, breathlessness, collapse or death (PE). There are national treatment recommendations to prevent DVT in cancer patients admitted to hospital. However, we do not know whether these should apply to patients with advanced cancer admitted to specialist palliative care units (SPCU) such as hospices, as treatment may not alter how long patients have to live or improve symptoms and quality of life. We do not know if good effects outweigh side-effects of treatment (e.g. bleeding) in these patients.
The aim of the HIDDen study is to find out how many cancer patients admitted to hospice units have a DVT. An ultrasound scanner (a safe simple scan which uses sound waves like the scans used in pregnant women to see the baby in the womb), at the hospice bedside, will be used to scan patients’ legs to test whether they have a DVT. Symptoms will be noted, and patients re-scanned a week later. Consecutive admissions to hospices in England (one site), Northern Ireland (three sites) and Wales (one site) will be recruited until at least 217 cancer patients not on treatment to prevent a blood clot have been scanned. This study will tell us how many cancer patients admitted to hospice units have DVTs and whether these cause problems. We will then understand better how we should treat people with advanced cancer.REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Leeds West Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/YH/0045
Date of REC Opinion
11 Mar 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion