EPCRC: Improved treatment of pain, depression and fatigue through translation research
Pain, depression and fatigue are subjective clinical manifestations of advanced cancer, affecting large patient groups. Even today, our understanding and management of these symptoms and conditions are insufficient. This project aims at improving the care by addressing diagnosis and classification as well as the underlying mechanisms. This will be done through research in several areas, in cooperation between clinicians, clinical researchers, and basic scientists.
The European Palliative Care Research Collaborative (EPCRC) consists of eight participating centres from six European countries: UK, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and Norway.
The overall objectives are to develop new genetic methods for predicting individual variation of fatigue/Cachexia and response to opioid treatment for pain, and methods for assessment and classification of pain, fatigue (cachexia), and depression.
The collaborative´s proposal was successfully evaluated in 2006 and received EU funding for a three year period.
Public news!
EPCRC contributions at the 2009 EAPC Congress
The 11th Congress of the European Association for Palliative Care took place in Vienna, 7th-10th May 2009.
The EPCRC arranged three successful parallel sessions during the meeting.
EPCRC large multi-centre study launched - 195 patients included
By now, 19 centres in eight countries have signed up for the EPCRC-CSA study: Computerised Symptom Assessment and Classification of Pain, Depression and Physical Function. The plan is to include a total of 1400 patients over the next 6-9 months.
