A project funded by the Bone Cancer Research Trust investigating perceptions about participation in clinical trials has won the prestigious RCNi Excellence in Cancer Research Award.
The award was for research funded by the Bone Cancer Research Trust with teenagers and young adults with bone cancer, and their health professionals. The project was carried out by the Bone Cancer Research Trust Perceptions of Patients and Professionals about Participation in Clinical Trials (BCRT PoPP) study team. Verna Lavender, Senior Lecturer in Cancer Care at Oxford Brookes University, represented the team for the award and attended a competitive interview with the judging panel in London.
The team conducted interviews with 21 young people aged 15 to 24 years and 18 health professionals and found factors that influence their participation. These include the importance and design of the clinical trial, communicating with young people in an age-specific manner, using language young people are comfortable with, and ensuring support from family, peers and professionals. The study also found that the environment the teenager/young adult was being treated in was important, as was the involvement of a clinical nurse specialist.
The team and I are delighted to have won this award and would like to thank the teenagers, young adults and health professionals that participated in and contributed to this research. Our aim was to improve outcomes for young people with bone cancer, which we know are influenced by participation in clinical trials. We hope our findings, alongside further research, will contribute to strategies that increase enrolment of teenagers and young adults in clinical trials. By winning this award we hope to further raise the profile of this important field of research.
Verna Lavender
Thee RCNi Excellence in Cancer Research Award is presented by Anne Croudass, Lead Research Nurse Cancer Research UK (left) and comedienne Lucy Porter (right) to Verna Lavender, Senior Lecturer in Cancer Care, Oxford Brookes University (centre)
The Bone Cancer Research Trust PoPP study team includes Verna Lavender, Susie Pearce (Principal Investigator), Alexandra Brownsdon, Dr Lorna Fern and Professor Jeremy Whelan from University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and Professor Faith Gibson from University of Surrey and Great Ormond Street Hospital.