Editorial: Does cancer research focus on areas of importance to patients?

Editorials (UK)

Abstract

The majority of research ideas are proposed by clinicians or scientists and little is currently known about which areas of research patients feel are important. We performed a 4 week pilot patient survey at the Royal Marsden (a specialist cancer centre) to investigate patients’ views on priorities for cancer research. A total of 780 patients completed the survey and the top research priorities were identified as: detection and prevention of cancer, scientific understanding, curative treatment and personalised treatment. The top research priorities were remarkably consistent across age, gender and a variety of tumour types. We believe that patients’ views should be considered alongside those of clinicians and researchers when devising research proposals and strategies.

Results and discussion

We had a total of 780 respondents, of whom 55% were female. The majority of patients were between 46–75 years of age: 119 patients (15%) were less than 45 years, 234 patients (30%) were 46–60 years, 326 (42%) were 61–75 years and 85 (11%) were >75 years. A large number of different tumour types were represented (see Table 1), with the most common being breast, prostate and gynaecological malignancies. Not all patients answered every question, however 396 (51%) patients stated they were being treated with curative intent and 296 (38%) patients were treated with palliative intent. Some patients had not yet started treatment or were having supportive care only, but 397 (51%) of patients were currently undergoing treatment and 229 (29%) were in follow-up/remission.....

 Table 1. Tumour types of respondents to the PACER survey.