Project overview - Introduction

Project Title:
The European Palliative Care Research Collaborative: Improved treatment of pain, depression and fatigue through translation research

Project Acronym:
EPCRC

Keywords:
cancer, palliative care, pain, depression, fatigue, cachexia, opioid response, genetic marker, classification, assessment, guidelines

Problem:
Even though pain, fatigue and depressive symptoms are the most common symptoms in advanced cancer, there is still inadequate understanding of the inter-individual variability of these problems. Cachexia is a major reason for fatigue in palliative care patients, but there is no internationally agreed assessment tool or classification system for either cachexia or depression in this patient group. Although there are several publications and agreements on the classification of pain, there is still no consensus on how to assess or measure it. In addition, there is a lack of internationally developed and updated clinical guidelines for the treatment of these conditions and symptoms.

Aim:
The overall objectives are to develop novel genetic methods for prediction of opioid responses and individual variation of fatigue (cachexia), and methods for assessment and classification of pain, fatigue (cachexia), and depression.

1 To identify genes and genetic variation relevant for inter-individual variation in opioid responses and genetic variation that may identify patients at particular risk for developing cachexia.

2 To improve classification and assessment of pain, depression and cachexia by computer assisted approaches.

3 To combine the new knowledge of symptoms, genomics and assessment in an internet-based system for implementation of European evidence-based guidelines, which will include standardized assessment and individualized treatment plans for pain, depression and cachexia.

4 To develop a long lasting European Collaborative in palliative care cancer research.