We invite you to participate in a series of workshops to explore the relationship between patients diagnosed with cancer and their mental health and how this relationship is affected by polypharmacy and the gut microbiome.
Overview
We need your help to identify and then address the critical research questions that - if answered - would help understand the relationship between mental health in patients with a cancer diagnosis, the consequences of managing these conditions, and the potential effects of the gut microbiome.
Background
The stress of a cancer diagnosis can impinge upon a patient's physical and behavioral health, including changes of mental health such as the onset of depression and/or anxiety and substance use. These behavioral health issues can be exacerbated by side effects of cancer treatments, which can range from mild to severe, and often dramatically impact the gut microbiome. In the absence of cancer, changes in the microbiome called dysbiosis are known to impact mental health through the gut-brain axis.
Because cancer treatments can alter the microbiome, there is likely a systemic relationship between cancer treatments, the gastrointestinal system, including the microbiome, and mental health. Therapeutic interventions are selected to achieve a clinical outcome but, as more problems arise, additional pharmaceutical or therapeutic interventions are administered — some of which might be self-prescribed (such as over-the-counter supplements or cannabis products) — creating a complex “polypharmacy” state. These interventions may have unanticipated direct or indirect consequences on both mental health and the gut microbiome.
The Challenge
The National Cancer Institute seeks to determine whether patient outcomes could potentially be improved by understanding how better to manage polypharmacy in a cancer patient within the context of behavioral health issues, microbiome dysbiosis and symptom management. To achieve such improvements it is imperative to move beyond exploring relationships in a pair-wise manner and take a holistic approach to understand the mechanistic relationships of the interplay among these complex elements together.
At the scoping phase we are not interested in solutions. We want to use the scoping workshop to identify the key research questions which - if answered - would create breakthrough progress at the intersection of these three fields. The questions might revolve around:
- Understanding the interactions among multiple medications, the microbiome, and mental health in cancer patients.
- Exploring how these interactions manifest in measurable ways.
- Identifying which interactions can be manipulated to improve patient outcomes.
- Envisioning a new paradigm for supporting mental health and well being in cancer patients.
At the second - Ideas Lab phase, we will take these research questions and invite collaborative teams to develop research proposals to address them.
The Event
The first phase is a Scoping Workshop designed to identify what you consider to be the most interesting research questions and to build a community of interest at the intersection of these three fields.
Everyone who participates in the Scoping workshop will be invited to apply to join an Ideas Lab during the week of November 11 2024 where you will develop collaborative research proposals to explore the questions identified at the Scoping Workshop.
The Scoping Workshop will be held virtually over two days on Tuesday August 27th and Wednesday 28th August. To accommodate as many people as possible, we will start at 11:00 AM ET and run through until 4:30 PM ET structured in three 90-minute sessions with a number of long breaks.
How To Register
The National Cancer Institute encourages applications from any party interested in actively participating in discussions and challenges about cancer, polypharmacy, the microbiome, and mental health.
Interested individuals with background in any of the following or related areas are encouraged to apply:
- Pharmacology (research and/or clinical)
- Patient Advocate
- Clinical Pharmacy
- Behavioral psychology
- Psycho-oncology
- Medical oncology
- Clinical trialist (including phase 0 or phase 1)
- Oncology nursing
- Microbiome
- Neurobiology
- Metabolism
- Nutrition
- Biomedical engineering