Programme for women with breast cancer

Basis

Current European and Swiss health policy emphasizes the relevance of supporting self- management as a means to improve health literacy, delivery of care and quality of life for people living with chronic illness. The Swiss national strategy against cancer 2014–2017 also defined the necessity to foster patient expertise and defined the development of self-management programmes of cancer patients as one of their strategic priorities.

Project

The Cancer Thriving and Surviving Program (CTS) is a 6-weeks course for people living with cancer. It aims to improve participants’ self-efficacy and self-management of symptoms and consequences of the illness and support their decision-making around their options. It builds on the Stanford Chronic Disease Self-management Program CDSMP, which has been successfully implemented in Switzerland as Evivo “Gesund und aktiv zu leben”. The programme is peer-led, which means that people living with chronic diseases are animating the programme workshops. So far, the CTS only exists in the US and has not yet been adapted for Swiss Cancer Care. Thus, the goal of our study is to co-create and test the effectiveness of the CTS Program specifically adapted for women living with breast cancer as Cancer Thriving and Surviving Breast Cancer Program (CTS-BC-CH).

The COSS pilot-study will include two Work Packages (WP). The first one (WP1) has an explorative design. Three workshops with health care professionals and breast cancer survivors will be conducted to co-create the CTS-BC-CH, which will be finalized in a consensus conference. In the second WP, the feasibility of the programme and study design will be tested in a pilot study in two breast centers. Based on the findings from the pilot study, we will plan a randomized controlled trial to investigate the CTS-BC-CH effects on practices in self-management support.

Participating Breast Centers in Work Package 1 (Workshop 1–3)

Frauenklinik, Kantonsspital Aarau
The Women’s Health Clinic, University Hospital Basel
University Clinic for Gynecology, Inselspital Bern
Breast Center Bern, Lindenhofgruppe

Duration

September 2016–November 2017 (end of project participation by Careum Research)

Institutions

Institute of Higher Education and Research in Healthcare, University of Lausanne and University Hospital of Lausanne, Biopôle 2, Route de la Corniche 10, CH-1010 Lausanne
Careum Research, Patient education, Pestalozzistrasse 3, CH-8032 Zurich
International Breast Cancer Study Group (IBCSG), Effingerstrasse 40, CH-3008 Bern
Frauenklinik, Universitätsspital Basel, Spitalstrasse 21, CH-4031 Basel
Patient Advocates for Cancer Research and Treatment (Association PACRT), chemin du Champ-Carré 10, CH-1256 Troinex, Genève

Project team

Institute of Higher Education and Research in Healthcare, University of Lausanne and University Hospital of Lausanne: Prof. Manuela Eicher (PI)
Careum Research: Dr. Jörg Haslbeck (Co-PI)
International Breast Cancer Study Group (IBCSG): Dr. phil. Karin Ribi
Frauenklinik, Universitätsspital Basel: Dr. phil. Corinne Urech
Patient Advocates for Cancer Research and Treatment (Association PACRT): Karin Holm

Awarding authorities

Swiss Cancer Research
Foundation Lindenhof Bern

Further informations

Careum blog posts of Karin Holm about breast cancer

Research

Gloriastrasse 18a
8006 Zürich