UHSussex consultant in palliative medicine, Dr Ollie Minton was a Principal Investigator for MePFAC, an NIHR-funded study that investigated fatigue in advanced cancer patients. Kent, Surrey and Sussex was the top recruiting region for this study, and its results have recently been published in the world-class Journal of Clinical Oncology.
“Fatigue has consistently been identified as a significant problem for patients with advanced cancer. Research suggests cancer related fatigue affects almost 65% of people with cancer and can have extreme mental, emotional and physical effects.
“There is mixed evidence as to whether a drug called Ritalin would be effective for this group of patients. Ritalin is a psychostimulant drug, which works by altering the level of natural substances in the brain. It is a drug we know is safe, so we wanted to investigate whether it could be taken with anti-cancer treatment to improve the deliberating symptom. It was so important to myself and my research colleagues to see if we could prove its efficacy in advanced cancer.
“MePFAC was a double blind, randomised vs placebo clinical trial. Half of the patients received Ritalin to treat their fatigue, and the other half of patients received a placebo in order to provide a definite answer as to where the treatment would be effective.
“However, after six weeks of treatment, we found that the drug was not superior to placebo for treating fatigue. There were also no other measures of mood or quality of life. This means we need to look at other drugs and interventions in order to improve fatigue in cancer patients, as the problem is still as significant as before.
“What we did prove is that we can conduct a trial within this patient group effectively. Patients were keen to participate, which led to Kent, Surrey and Sussex being the top recruiting region for this study. Sites included Pilgrims Hospice Thanet in Margate and Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton. We also have centres across England, who will assist this research when we further investigate the problem in future.”
View the published results for MePFAC in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.