PRO-REHAB: Development and Pilot Trial V1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The development and pilot trial of two programmes of rehabilitation for cancer patients - ‘PRO-REHAB’
IRAS ID
131061
Contact name
Annie Young
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Warwick
Research summary
Nearly all people with cancer need rehabilitation during their care pathway and yet there are few rehabilitation programmes available. In contrast, ‘cardiac (heart) rehabilitation’, is well known and both individual (home-based) and multidisciplinary (centre-based) programmes have been shown to make patients to feel and function better. Providing choice of format increases uptake.
We aim to develop two new rehabilitation programmes for patients with common cancers - breast, lung, prostate, and colorectal - and also patients with head and neck cancers (who often require intensive rehabilitation)- and then assess these new programmes against the care that patients receive now. We will adapt programmes currently available to people with heart conditions, to suit cancer patients.
In the first part of the study, an expert group (patients, carers and professionals) will develop i) individual, home-based and ii) group centre-based rehabilitation programmes. These will then be tested by patients and their comments will guide further development. This process will be repeated if necessary to design programmes meeting the patients’ needs.
In the second part, the two rehabilitation programmes and usual care will be assessed in a pilot trial which has 3 equal groups of 50 patients each. Patients who have completed their course of treatment will be invited to take part. Patients who wish to take part will be allocated to a group by the computer at random. We will find out if the programmes fit successfully into the clinical pathway from the views of patients and staff and we will be able to estimate, from looking at the patients’ quality of life scores, how many patients are needed for a next large trial to prove whether rehabilitation programmes for cancer patients are better than usual care.
PRO REHAB is the first research study of structured rehabilitation programmes for cancer patients.REC name
West Midlands - Solihull Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
13/WM/0340
Date of REC Opinion
16 Sep 2013
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion