LIMR Clinical: Adherence with Cancer Treatment in Adolescents and Young Adults

Summary

Adherence with therapy is a significant clinical problem in young people, for many reasons. The scale of this has never been quantified in a population-based setting. This project will estimate adherence for our population, and develop methods for its measurement in future.

• Literature scoping review year 1. Mo 0-6

• Data linkage development between LTHT and Uni Leeds. Mo4 to Mo 28. The aim would be to link a dataset of all pharmacy dispensed medications (supportive care and others) for TYA in LTHT to their population-based cancer register record, and to seek an ethically approved dataset extraction from the LTHT PAS system of Out-patient appointments, cancellations and rearrangements. This would enhance our existing extensive data linkage in place.

• Construct a biostatistical model consisting of all available parameters and key missing parameters, to estimate adherence with care and treatment, using routinely available data and the approved register data. Mo 12-18. This would include dispensed supporting medications against protocol/expected, time intervals between doses of cancer treatment, attendance at out-patient appointments, rearrangement of outpatient appointments, intervals between in-patient stays and other parameters devised by the student from the literature.

• Testing of patient self-report instruments that assess adherence with 2 patient groups in the clinical environment, under honorary NHS contract, using patient and public involvement techniques, in a set of user groups and an actual patient group attending the TYA clinics. Mo 15-30

• Analysis of the dataset according to the model in c), and completion of thesis writing Mo-28-36

Techniques associated with this project:

Basis of PHD uni Leeds Mo 0-4

Patient-facing research y1, Data governance yr 1, Data Linkage methods, Coding in SQL and Statistics methods

This project is part of the International PhD Academy: Medical Research

In line with the bespoke nature of our International PhD Academy a modified PhD project can be proposed dependent on students interests and background.

A degree in biological sciences, dentistry, medicine, midwifery, nursing, psychology or a good honours degree in a subject relevant to the research topic. For entry requirements for all other research degrees we offer, please contact us.

Applicants whose first language is not English must provide evidence that their English language is sufficient to meet the specific demands of their study. The minimum requirements for this programme in IELTS and TOEFL tests are: • British Council IELTS - score of 7.0 overall, with no element less than 6.5 • TOEFL iBT - overall score of 100 with the listening and reading element no less than 22, writing element no less than 23 and the speaking element no less than 24.