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Prehabilitation for people living with a brain tumour

This research will aim to understand how we can better prepare patients with primary high-grade brain tumours for their treatments and establish what prehabilitation should look like for this patient group.

Full title

Understanding the benefits, key components and delivery considerations of prehabilitation for adults with high grade primary brain tumour in the United Kingdom.

Background

Approximately 5,800 people are diagnosed with a primary high-grade brain tumour (grade 3 and 4) yearly in the UK with glioblastoma being the most common primary brain tumour in adults.

The most common treatment approach delivered at specialist Neuro-oncology Centres includes urgent surgery (typically occurring within a few days, up to a month after diagnosis), alongside chemoradiotherapy and chemotherapy.

Despite multimodal treatment, prognosis is poor with an average survival time for patients with a glioblastoma (grade 4) of 12-18 months, 25% surviving more than 1 year, and 5% surviving over 5 years.

There is often little time for patients to prepare physically and psychologically for surgery and further treatments.

Symptoms experienced are highly intrusive and can have a major impact on a patient’s functioning, well-being, and quality of life, adding to the burden of disease for both patients and their families.

Specialist allied health professionals (AHP’s) are considered core members of the care team and are well-placed to deliver a patient-centred approach to prepare patients for and cope with their treatments.

However, there is significant geographical variation in the design, quality and extent of brain cancer services in the United Kingdom.

What we are doing

The aims of this research are to:

  1. Map the existing evidence on prehabilitation interventions for patients with brain tumour and identify gaps in the evidence.
  2. Describe the characteristics of prehabilitation programmes and identify the outcomes used to evaluate the programmes.
  3. Map and describe the current prehabilitation services across the NHS for patients with high-grade brain tumour and identify the outcomes used to evaluate them.
  4. Understand the experiences, needs and expectations of prehabilitation for patients with high-grade brain tumour and their families/carers.
  5. Understand the professional perspectives of those involved in prehabilitation services and how prehabilitation services for patients with high-grade brain tumour are designed, delivered and evaluated.

Fellow

Alice Franklin, Senior Specialist Physiotherapist in Neuro-oncology

Supervisors

Professor Joy Adamson and Professor Lucksy Kottam

Funder

National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) – Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Mission Allied Health Professional (AHP) Research Fellowship

Current status

In set-up