% IMPORTANT: The following is UTF-8 encoded. This means that in the presence
% of non-ASCII characters, it will not work with BibTeX 0.99 or older.
% Instead, you should use an up-to-date BibTeX implementation like “bibtex8” or
% “biber”.
@ARTICLE{Blickle:283208,
author = {P. Blickle$^*$ and A. Haussmann$^*$ and B. Holzner and A.
K. Berger and K. Steindorf$^*$ and M. Schmidt$^*$},
title = {{P}roviding the basis for a patient-centred and effective
screening for cancer-related fatigue ({MERLIN} study):
design of a longitudinal observational study.},
journal = {BMJ open},
volume = {13},
number = {9},
issn = {2044-6055},
address = {London},
publisher = {BMJ Publishing Group},
reportid = {DKFZ-2023-01973},
pages = {e073802},
year = {2023},
note = {#EA:C110#LA:C110#},
abstract = {Cancer-related fatigue (CRF) is a frequent and burdensome
sequela of cancer and cancer therapies. It can persist from
months to years and has a substantial impact on patients'
quality of life and functioning. CRF is often still not
adequately diagnosed and insufficiently treated. According
to guideline recommendations, patients should be routinely
screened for CRF from cancer diagnosis onwards. We will
investigate how an effective screening should be designed
regarding timing, frequency, screening type and cut-off
points.MERLIN is a longitudinal observational study that
will include 300 patients with cancer at the beginning of
cancer therapy. The main study centre is the National Center
for Tumour Diseases Heidelberg, Germany. Patients answer
five items to shortly screen for CRF at high frequency
during their therapy and at lower frequency during the
post-treatment phase for 18 months. Further, CRF is assessed
at wider intervals based on the Cella criteria, the Brief
Fatigue Inventory impact scale, the quality of life fatigue
questionnaire (QLQ-FA12) and the fatigue and cognitive items
of the quality of life core questionnaire (QLQ-C30), both of
the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of
Cancer. Important psychological, socio-demographical or
medical factors, which may exacerbate CRF are assessed. All
assessments are performed online. Receiver operating curves,
areas under the curve, sensitivity, specificity, positive
and negative predictive values and likelihood ratios will be
calculated to determine optimal short screening
modalities.The study was approved by the ethics committee of
the Medical Faculty of the Heidelberg University, Germany
(approval number: S-336/2022). Written informed consent is
obtained from all participants. The study is conducted in
full conformance with the principles of the Declaration of
Helsinki. Results will be published in peer-reviewed
scientific journals, presented at conferences and
communicated to clinical stakeholders to foster the
implementation of an effective CRF
management.ClinicalTrials.gov; registration number:
NCT05448573.},
keywords = {clinical trial (Other) / fatigue (Other) / oncology (Other)
/ patient reported outcome measures (Other) /
patient-centered care (Other)},
cin = {C110},
ddc = {610},
cid = {I:(DE-He78)C110-20160331},
pnm = {313 - Krebsrisikofaktoren und Prävention (POF4-313)},
pid = {G:(DE-HGF)POF4-313},
typ = {PUB:(DE-HGF)16},
pubmed = {pmid:37770278},
doi = {10.1136/bmjopen-2023-073802},
url = {https://inrepo02.dkfz.de/record/283208},
}