Sam Stevens
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Dr Sam Stevens

Thesis work

Thesis title: The time toxicity of cancer treatments used for advanced solid-organ malignancy

Thesis abstract:

For people with advanced cancer, time is a vanishing commodity with heightened intrinsic value, yet a substantial proportion of patients’ time is traded to receive cancer therapies. Time spent in treatment may impede the pursuit of important goals, and in some cases, eclipse survival gains from treatment. The time toxicity of cancer treatments is the time that patients spend receiving, travelling to, or coordinating their healthcare. Prior knowledge about the time toxicity of cancer treatments is likely to be important to patients and their caregivers, especially in the setting of incurable cancer. However, existing clinical decision-making paradigms regarding treatment do not adequately consider the value of patients’ time. There is a pressing need to quantify the time trade-offs inherent in common cancer treatments and build an understanding of how patients and caregivers might perceive and act on information about the time burdens of care.

My PhD project will build an understanding of the time toxicity of palliative cancer treatments, taking into account the perspectives of patients, caregivers and clinicians. We will quantify the time trade-offs that are acceptable for patients receiving treatment for advanced cancer, and assess the importance of time toxicity to clinical decision-making. Finally, we will assess ways of measuring time toxicity in future research