CURRENT PROJECT 4
Identifying patient research priorities in melanoma: A UK qualitative study
Clinical Investigators
Dr Khaylen Mistry, Academic Clinical Fellow, Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital/University of East Anglia
Co-Investigators
Dr Dimitrios Karponis,Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital and Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia
Dr Mitesh Patel,Kings College Hospital, London
Mr John Ragan,Patient representative, Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital
Dr Oliver Kennedy,The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester and University of Manchester
Professor Paul Lorigan,The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester and University of Manchester
Professor Nick Levell, Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital and Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia
Associate Professor Zoe Venables, Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia and National Disease Registration Service, NHS Digital, Leeds, UK
Project start date
01/08/2023
Proposed project duration
1 year
Project Summary
Rapid improvements in melanoma care over the last 10 years, due to targeted and immunotherapy treatments, have influenced the type of research that is being carried out for melanoma. It is important to ensure research benefits patients and so this project plans to interview patients across the UK to find out their views.
Patients with melanoma diagnosed in the past ten years will be interviewed to identify and prioritise unanswered research questions. Researchers will recruit a mix of participants of different gender, age, ethnicity, deprivation, disability, geographical region and tumour stage so all groups are represented.
The main topics to be discussed during interviews are;
What are interesting and important areas to research regarding:
(1) melanoma overall
(2) how common is melanoma, risk factors for getting melanoma, to what degree it may be inherited and how it is diagnosed
(3) treatment, survival, follow up and whether other diseases and their treatments affect risk of getting melanoma and response to melanoma treatment.
The main aims of the research project:
To identify unanswered research questions for people with melanoma which will result in research that meets patient’s needs.
The funding from Melanoma Focus is to be able to:
Reimburse patients for their time during interviews and provide access to transcription software.
Comment from Clinical Investigators
“Support and funding from Melanoma Focus has been invaluable to recruit and thank patients for giving their time. This research will allow us to better understand how we can prioritise future melanoma research to answer questions that are important to patients.”