Complex symptoms, aftercare and survivorship

Our research into complex symptoms, aftercare and survivorship in the field of cancer, supportive and palliative care falls into three main strands.

Management of complex symptoms

The SUPAC group builds on a strong research programme initiated by Professor Alex Molassiotis investigating the experience and management of complex symptoms. These particularly include nausea and vomiting, and cough, breathlessness and fatigue.

Ongoing and future work includes research into the patient experience, assessment and symptom management within respiratory disease. This includes:

• lung cancer
• chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
• pulmonary hypertension
• interstitial lung disease, particularly idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

Equitable access to cancer treatment

Our work has demonstrated that older women are substantially less likely than younger women to receive standard management for operable breast cancer, irrespective of health or tumour characteristics. We seek to identify ways of enabling equitable access.

Nutritional interventions

SUPAC hosts a developing programme investigating nutritional supplementation in preparing patients for surgery and supporting them following surgery. With an initial focus on colorectal cancer, this programme is now expanding to a variety of cancers.