About the project and the involvement opportunity
It is estimated that almost half of all Australians will develop one or more bowel polyps during their lifetime. While most are not harmful and can be completely removed at colonoscopy, some bowel polyps have potential to develop into cancer.
Patients who have a polyp removed which is found to contain early cancer, currently face a significant challenge in balancing optimal treatment with potential impact on their quality of life. The risk of there being any cancerous cells left behind in the bowel wall or in nearby lymph nodes, is estimated to be approximately 10%.
Since it is currently impossible to identify people most at risk of this, most patients are recommended to undergo major surgery, which may lead to post-operative complications, a permanent stoma (colostomy bag) or life-long bowel dysfunction.
Therefore, there is an urgent need to find better ways of identifying patients who require surgery. This project will investigate how the immune system prevents polyps developing into cancer and whether assessing the type and function of immune cells present in the polyp can help to determine which patients are most in need of surgery.
About the position
You will be asked to provide feedback for a grant application. You will also have an opportunity to give more general feedback on the importance of the research question, from a consumer perspective.
What am I expected to do?
Assist the team with the plain language summary and study title for the grant application.
What skills or experience do I need?
You need to have lived experience of bowel cancer. This can be either a personal diagnosis, or through caring for a close relative.
How long am I expected to be involved?
You would be required to attend one face-to-face meeting with the lead researcher with follow up by email, telephone or a second face-to-face discussion for the grant application. There will be an opportunity for continued involvement with the project if funding applications are successful.
Where will meetings be held?
Meetings will be held at Harry Perkins Institute for Medical Research, Nedlands or virtually via Teams/Zoom.
What support is offered?
$37.50 per hour honorarium. Training and support are offered by the Consumer and Community Involvement Program.
Note: By checking this box, you agree to allow us to save your details to a cookie on your device. Your information will not be saved to our servers and will only be used to assist in pre-populating your details on other registration forms. You can clear your saved details by removing this cookie through your browser settings.