Evaluation of The Haven Programme

The effects of integrating The Haven Programme with standard medical treatment on psychophysiological outcomes in women with breast cancer

The Haven is planning a rigorous evaluation of The Haven Programme to provide scientific evidence of  its effects on the quality of life of women with breast cancer receiving a standard cancer treatment regime.

This requires a randomised controlled trial of a large number of patients to show any effects. Since such a trial is a big undertaking with large costs, a pilot feasibility study has been carried out involving a small number of patients so that the study design and methods to be used can be tested.

Pilot feasibility study
The pilot study, generously funded by GlaxoSmithKline (£79,022), was a randomised study in which participants either received The Haven Programme alongside standard medical treatments, or standard medical treatment alone. Recruitment for the study, carried out at Charing Cross and St Mary's Hospitals in London, ran from February 2008 to the end of May 2009.

Published
The results from this study have now been published in the Journal of Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice and will be used to inform a larger study evaluating the Haven Programme.

Conclusions
The preliminary findings of this small pilot study suggest that the Haven programme may have beneficial effects on fatigue, mood disturbance, quality of life, breast-specific symptoms and immune function in women with breast cancer that warrant further investigation in a large multi-centre randomised trial. This will require an effective recruitment strategy to ensure its success.