Institute of Genetics and Cancer

Project pilots new rehabilitation model for adults with advanced cancer

The EU-funded INSPIRE project will guide future integrated palliative care and rehabilitation services for cancer: June 2024

Population ageing and increasing rates of cancer-related disability are challenges to European health services.

INSPIRE (Integrated Short-term Palliative Rehabilitation) is a four-year project funded by Horizon Europe that seeks to address disability, declining mobility and related palliative care needs for individuals with cancer.

The project is piloting a new model of rehabilitation for adults living with advanced cancer across Europe to improve function and quality of life.

Recruitment to the trial will take place in Denmark, England, France, Norway, Italy and Scotland. By testing a new model of palliative rehabilitation in a randomised controlled trial, a range of healthcare professionals will work with individuals with cancer to target their debilitating symptoms and devise a unique rehabilitation plan to support their goals.

Professor Barry Laird and Clinical Fellow Amy McLuskie from Edinburgh Cancer Research in the Institute of Genetics and Cancer, and Dr Joanne Bayly from King’s College London, have been instrumental in preparing the trial manual and in delivering the training to rehabilitation practitioners.

Practitioners will engage participants in evidence-based rehabilitation strategies, working towards goals that matter to them in everyday life. INSPIRE includes interventions to optimise self-management of symptoms, physical fitness and engagement in daily activities and will support individuals to participate in their family and community networks, navigating the constraints of their condition.

Goals for everyday life should be person centered. I think we all do goal setting to a degree as health professionals but we don’t necessarily label them in this way. We wanted it built into INSPIRE that the individual’s goal is what directs the palliative rehabilitation sessions.

Amy McLuskie

For more information, visit: https://palliativeprojects.eu/inspire/

Inspire: group shot and logos