Co-morbidity and Late Effects
Co-morbidity and Late Effects
This work-stream is looking at how pre-existing health conditions impact on survival in the twenty most-common cancers in the UK, and how surviving cancer and its treatment impacts on patients’ long-term health.
We will follow on from the main project’s task of solving the legal, ethical and technical difficulties associated with safely and securely linking patients’ data. We hope to show what great work can be done when GP and hospital data talk to each other. Take a look below at the benefits of this work-stream’s activities.
Why?
A growing proportion of patients diagnosed with cancer have one or more health conditions. Little is known about how pre-existing health conditions affect survival from cancer. Understanding the effect of prior health will help us identify intervention and support that could improve cancer survival.
A growing proportion of patients are living with and beyond cancer; Over 50% of patients with cancer will survive for more than 10 years after their initial diagnosis. Understanding how cancer and its treatment affect long-term health will help us identify ways to support long-term health after cancer.
How?
We will identify which health conditions effect survival outcomes from cancer-specific causes and non-cancer-specific causes.
Comparing cancer and non-cancer patients
Approximately 100,000 cancer patients will be compared with 500,000 non-cancer patients who were urgently referred to hospital. This allows us to look at survival from cancer causes but also non-cancer causes.
Comorbidities at diagnosis
We will apply cutting-edge analysis methods to find the most powerful predictors of survival in cancer and non-cancer patients.
Late-effects of cancer and treatment
We will identify any strong associations between cancer and common later health problems such as heart disease and diabetes. We will look at patterns in both the likelihood of developing later health problems and whether having cancer effects the time it takes for the condition to develop.
Who we are
Publications
We intend to broadcast our methods and findings in high-impact academic journals and conferences, as the project progresses. Below, are some of the academic publications associated with this work-stream.
Scroll down to Public Engagement Work to see what we are doing to broadcast this work to the public at large.
Public Engagement
We believe that research is ultimately for the benefit of everyone. We’re getting involved with you, the public, through a range of events and media. Have a look below to see what we’re up to.