Women’s Cancer Survivorship: Supporting and Innovating for Change

2020

This Women’s Cancer Survivorship initiative consists of a multidisciplinary team funded by Breakthrough Cancer Research and the Irish cancer Society.  The aim of this 2 year project is to develop a nurse-led Women’s Cancer Survivorship Clinic within the HSE South/South West hospital group.  This clinic will span the hospital system, community services community services (e.g Arc House) and the Irish Cancer Society funded Daffodil Service on site at the CUH and international survivorship efforts.

The goal of this clinic is to identify and manage important symptoms experienced by women impacted by effects of cancer treatment. These will include psycho-oncology, cancer related fatigue, sexual health issues including menopausal symptoms, nutrition and exercise.

This project also aims to educate both patients and clinical teams regarding important survivorship symptoms and their optimal management and to provide easy web-based access to information for patients and clinical teams.  In addition, patient-reported outcomes collected electronically during this 2 year project will be used for research purposes to assess impact of clinical service and current/future patient needs.

It is hoped that this clinic will lead to a decrease in the frequency and burden of symptoms among women who have been treated for breast and gynaecological cancer and to improve their quality of life.

Publications

Kearns N, Raigal-Aran L, O’Connell K, Davis A, Bermingham K, O’Reilly S, Collins DC, Corrigan M, Coulter J, Cleary V, Cushen S, Flavin A, Byrne F, O’Grady A, O’Neill D, Murphy A, Dahly D, Palmer B, Connolly RM, Hegarty J. The Women’s Health Initiative cancer survivorship clinic incorporating electronic patient-reported outcomes: a study protocol for the Linking You to Support and Advice (LYSA) randomized controlled trial. Pilot Feasibility Stud. 2022 Nov 10;8(1):238. doi: 10.1186/s40814-022-01186-x. Erratum in: Pilot Feasibility Stud. 2022 Dec 12;8(1):255. PMID: 36357934; PMCID: PMC9648029.

Kearns N, Raigal-Aran L, O’Connell K, Davis A, Bermingham K, O’Reilly S, Collins DC, Corrigan M, Coulter J, Cleary V, Cushen S, Flavin A, Byrne F, O’Grady A, O’Neill D, Murphy A, Dahly D, Palmer B, Connolly RM, Hegarty J. Correction: The Women’s Health Initiative cancer survivorship clinic incorporating electronic patient-reported outcomes: a study protocol for the Linking You to Support and Advice (LYSA) randomized controlled trial. Pilot Feasibility Stud. 2022 Dec 12;8(1):255. doi: 10.1186/s40814-022-01219-5. Erratum for: Pilot Feasibility Stud. 2022 Nov 10;8(1):238. PMID: 36510292; PMCID: PMC9743670.