Psychological Morbidity, Unmet Needs And Patterns Of Care In Culturally And Linguistically Diverse Cancer Patients In Au
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$413,405.00
Summary
Australia has one of the most culturally diverse populations in the world. There is evidence that cancer patients from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) groups have poorer outcomes. People from CALD backgrounds may experience difficulties within the Australian health system for a variety of reasons, including langauge barriers, a lack of knowledge of the healthcare system, differing beliefs and attitudes abouit illness and treatment, religious and spiritual differences, communication ....Australia has one of the most culturally diverse populations in the world. There is evidence that cancer patients from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) groups have poorer outcomes. People from CALD backgrounds may experience difficulties within the Australian health system for a variety of reasons, including langauge barriers, a lack of knowledge of the healthcare system, differing beliefs and attitudes abouit illness and treatment, religious and spiritual differences, communication difficulties and social suffering. There is good evidence that English speaking cancer patients suffer high levels of anxiety and depression, and that their needs are not currently adequately met by the current system. Previous research in psycho-oncology has on the whole excluded patients from non-English speaking backgrounds due to a lack of resources and expertise to ensure scientific validity of results. This study aims to discover the prevalence of anxiety, depression, unmet needs and access to care in 1st generation Chinese, Arabic and Greek speaking cancer patients. This study will inform the development of appropriate interventions to reduce the burden of a cancer diagnosis on these groups.Read moreRead less
DETECTION OF OCCULT DISSEMINATED TUMOUR CELLS AND TUMOUR DNA IN EARLY STAGE OPERABLE BREAST CANCER PATIENTS
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$561,000.00
Summary
Most of the reduction in breast cancer death rate in recent years is due to earlier diagnosis because of mammographic screening. Even among women with very favorable tumours, at least 20% will die of breast cancer. The risk increases to over 50% in less favorable cases of operable early breast cancer. Current practice relies very heavily upon prognostic factors such as lymph node status and tumour size in determining the risk of subsequent failure and the need for therapy. There is a significant ....Most of the reduction in breast cancer death rate in recent years is due to earlier diagnosis because of mammographic screening. Even among women with very favorable tumours, at least 20% will die of breast cancer. The risk increases to over 50% in less favorable cases of operable early breast cancer. Current practice relies very heavily upon prognostic factors such as lymph node status and tumour size in determining the risk of subsequent failure and the need for therapy. There is a significant risk of under treating good prognosis disease patients (20%) and over treating women with intermediate and high risk disease (40%). The first aim of the study is to use novel molecular methodologies to detect breast cancer cells in the blood of patients with early stage breast cancer at diagnosis. The presence of tumour cells will be correlated with the usual prognostic factors used in the management of women with breast cancer. The patients will be followed long-term to clarify the relationship between disseminated tumour cells in the blood and bone marrow and eventual outcome to assess the effectiveness of these new methodologies in patient management. We will also assess new molecular methodologies which will allow us to track very low levels of disease, and thereby monitor the effectiveness of treatment, and allow prediction of impending relapse. Studying the blood of breast cancer patients represents a unique opportunity for determining whether the cancer has spread before surgery and for monitoring of disease after surgical removal of the tumour. This study may prove invaluable in predicting disease free and survival outcomes and provide a more rational approach to the use of chemotherapy in patients with early breast cancer.Read moreRead less