Clinical Research at St John’s Hospice

The Research Department, based in the Lodge at St John’s Hospice, is led by Professor Bennett, Professor of Palliative Medicine at Lancaster University and Medical Consultant at St John’s Hospice and The Royal Lancaster Infirmary.

Mandy Hughes (Clinical Trials Manager for Palliative Care) and Gail Wiley (Palliative Care Research Practitioner) work alongside Professor Bennett at Lancaster. The team is fast expanding with Dr Susan Salt and Anita Griggs being based at Trinity Hospice in Blackpool and Dr Alison Parr and Lesley Dunleavy at St Catherine’s in Preston. The aim being to develop a network of research active hospices in Lancashire and Cumbria

Over the past 6 months our aim has been to undertake a variety of studies, the results of which we hope will provide evidence to ensure patients receive the best and most appropriate care when receiving End of Life Care

We have just completed recruitment to the PiPS study which was a multicentre study looking at ways of developing a prognostic indicator for cancer patients. Over 1000 patients were registered in total, 28 being from St John’s and 23 from Trinity Hospice. At St John’s we are also undertaking the SPRAY study. This is a pharmaceutical company trial and involves patients with advanced cancer who experience inadequate analgesia during optimized chronic opioid therapy. In the pipeline we also have a study focusing on patients experiencing breathlessness and another study in connection with neuropathic pain. We have also completed a feasibility study using a DVD for explaining to patients about cancer pain and also a study using the TENS machine in the management of cancer bone pain. We hope that in 2010 we will be able to build on the knowledge gained in these two latter studies to develop further studies

Being based in the Lodge with the Education/Teaching department we feel is a great bonus and will enable us all to work together and ensure healthcare professionals have the benefit of our shared evidence and knowledge with regard to caring for the terminally ill whether it is in a hospice or the community