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A study conducted by Peter Mac researchers supports the investment in supportive care services for lung cancer patients. The addition of supportive care resulted in better health outcomes, fewer hospital visits, greater adherence to medication and even a reduction in anxiety surrounding treatment.
Research led by Professor Meinir Krishnasamy, Director Academic Nursing Unit, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre has shown for the first time that supportive care service investments provide a substantial benefit to patients and community.
Professor Krishnasamy said the study examined the impact of supportive care services for people affected by lung cancer.
“This new research finding demonstrates that investment in supportive care services has significant return on investment for people affected by lung cancer and for the health system,” said Professor Krishnasamy.
“Our study used a social return on investment methodology and demonstrated that for every dollar invested in supportive care, there is a nine-dollar social return when savings to the healthcare system and benefits to the patients are combined.
“These savings can be better health outcomes, fewer hospital visits, adherence to medication and even a reduction in anxiety surrounding treatment.
“At five-years, these same investments resulted in greater cumulative value, with an eleven-dollar social return on investment.”
Lung cancer is the fifth most commonly diagnosed cancer in Australia and is the leading cause of cancer death. Improvements in treatment and care have increased survival however patient and care giver needs are not being met and this is driving the economic impact of lung cancer.
During the study, patients described a range of unmet supportive care needs that spanned informational, emotional, functional, physical, social and spiritual issues.
When addressed through interventions such as patient-centred informational provision, screening for anxiety and depression, screening for financial stress, isolation or cultural needs, patients reported benefits to their health outcomes and quality of life.
“Our study provides strong evidence for policy makers, clinicians and consumers to advocate for further investment in cancer supportive care to improve health outcomes and quality of life for people affected by cancer,” said Professor Krishnasamy.
“Access to and availability of supportive care services within acute health services is variable and unequal, hopefully we can use this research to support a change.”
Social Return on Investment is an expanded form of cost-benefit analysis that seeks to capture the social, economic, and environmental impacts of interventions, as well as acknowledge potential negative effects of services.
Collaborating in this research were Ms Amelia Hyatt, Associate Professor Karla Gough & Ms Holly Chung at Peter Mac, and Dr Ruth Aston at the University of Melbourne.
The research was published in BMC Health Services Research journal and is available for download.
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A range of beautiful "bereavement bags" has been developed for use in Peter Mac’s palliative care ward.
They replace the standard plastic bags that have been used, up to now, to store a patient's personal effects after they have died.
Earlier this year, Peter Mac’s community was asked to submit uplifting designs for these bags which are collected by grieving families.
One of the designs chosen by Ward 1A staff was provided by Holly Clinton, who sadly lost her sister Amber to breast cancer.
“I still have the blue plastic belongings bag with my sister's ID on it,” Holly says.
“It fills me with so much joy to know that other families will have something a little nicer to bring home.”
Holly’s design has “minimal colours to portray a sense of love and empathy for those going through loss” and also the words “Until we meet again”.
“Being in this position only a year ago, I know that there is very little that comforts you during this time,” she says.
“The one thing that never faded though was the thought that I would one day see my sister again. If it brought comfort to me, I hope it will bring comfort to others too.”
Ward 1A Nurse Unit Manager Holly Pitt led the initiative, and said the aim was to have bags that reflected the respectful way the palliative care team engages with patients.
“We also hope, in a small way, they provide solace and support to grieving families,” Ms Pitt says.
There are two community submitted designs, plus a design from Peter Mac's SPLICE youth art initiative and also a design to convey cultural safety for Aboriginal patients.
This initiative also recently featured on Channel Nine news - re-watch the story below.
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Dr Abby Douglas has been awarded the 2022 Peter MacCallum Postgraduate Research Medal for her clinical practice changing research.
Dr Douglas has been awarded the prestigious award which aims to promote excellence in cancer research by a PhD and Medical Doctor or Doctor of Medical Science student at Peter Mac.
Dr Douglas uncovered that you could reduce length of hospital stay and antimicrobial use by using PET scans instead of CT scans in the management of ongoing neutropenic fever in bone marrow transplant patients or those with acute leukaemia.
Neutropenia is a condition where a patient has a very low white blood cell count, making the person more susceptible to infection. Unfortunately, neutropenic patients who have ongoing fever often have very few focal symptoms which makes it challenging for the doctor to uncover where or what is causing the infection. Importantly, these patients are vulnerable to serious infections and consequences of untreated infection such as intensive care admission and mortality, hence accurately detecting the cause of fever is vitally important and challenging up until now.
A CT scan is the standard of care to help the doctor uncover the cause of infection, but this technique is not always accurate, and Dr Douglas wanted to find a better diagnostic test. She developed and conducted a randomised controlled trial with her PhD supervisors Professors Monica Slavin and Karin Thursky to answer this question.
“The trial compared the use of CT scan to FDG-PET-CT scan to learn what impact the information obtained from the scan was having on antimicrobial use. She looked at whether it resulted in the use of more narrow spectrum treatments and if it resulted in stopping therapy when it was not needed, said Professor Karin Thursky, Associate Director, Health Services Research and Implementation Science.
“The results clearly showed that FDG-PET-CT scan was a better diagnostic tool as it helped to rationalise the use of antimicrobials as well as reduce hospital stay. Her findings will result in improved patient outcomes, reduced costs, improved antimicrobial stewardship and are currently being translated into clinical guidelines.”
The study was published in The Lancet Haematology this year.
Congratulations Dr Douglas on your remarkable work and your well-deserved Peter Mac Medal.
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A new paper published in Nature Cell Biology today by Peter Mac researchers has challenged previous thinking about human cells and opened up new treatment options that will better harness the immune system to recognise and attack cancer.
Professor Mark Dawson, Associate Director for Research Translation and Consultant Haematologist at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, said patients with lymphoma and lung cancer could be among the first to benefit from the findings.
“Our research discovery has major implications for many different fields of research because we need to understand how cells make decisions and change the way they act in order to find new ways to treat cancer,” Professor Dawson said.
“All cells carry a set of genes that lay dormant waiting for instructions to either be active or silent.
“Previously we thought that if we inhibited a protein called Menin, which had been shown to activate genes, that these dormant genes would become silenced.
“However, our research discovered that the opposite happens, and we actually activate these dormant genes,” he said.
“Some cancer cells keep genes that direct our immune system in this dormant state,” said Dr Christina Sparbier, PhD student in the Dawson lab at Peter Mac who led the work.
”We found that by removing Menin, we increase the expression of the genes so that the immune system can more readily detect these cancer cells and kill them.”
Associate Professor Marian Burr, clinician scientist, Snow Fellow and laboratory head at the John Curtin School of Medical Research who jointly supervised the project said, “our findings markedly expand the potential applications of these drugs and illustrate that they can be used in combination with other treatments to enhance the ability of the immune system to recognise and kill the cancer cells.
“We believe this treatment combination will be effective in the management of lymphoma and potentially lung cancer where these pathways are active.”
The new paper 'Targeting Menin disrupts the KMT2A/B and polycomb balance to paradoxically activate bivalent genes' will be published in Nature Cell Biology on 12 January 2023.
Contacts:
For more information contact the Peter Mac Communications team on 0417 123 048.
About Peter Mac
Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre is a world-leading cancer research, education and treatment centre and Australia’s only public health service solely dedicated to caring for people affected by cancer.
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Many people celebrate January 26 but increasingly, people are more aware that the date brings with it pain, feelings of sadness, and mourning for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
At Peter Mac we recognize the resilience and ongoing strength of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and their 60,000+ years of continuous connection to the land and culture. This is something that more Australians are proud to recognize, reflect, and celebrate alongside First Nations communities.
At Peter Mac, we are proudly progressing our work towards reconciliation and continually striving to create a culturally safe and welcoming environment, with a view to closing the gaps in health and achieving health equity for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.