Nervous System Diseases

Symptoms and General Pathology

All Conditions

Taste Disorders

Sensation Disorders

Neurologic Manifestations

Pharmaceutical Solutions

All Drugs and Chemicals

Group A: Cancer patients (requiring or have required texture-modified foods and/or experiencing or have experienced taste\&smell alterations in the last 12 months) will be required to attend a one-hour online interview.

Group B: Relatives of cancer patients (requiring texture-modified foods and/or experiencing taste\&smell alterations) will be required to attend a 2-hour online focus group session.

Group C: Healthcare professionals with a minimum of a year's experience with oncological patients that require texture-modified foods and/or have taste \& smell alteration will be required to attend a 2-hour online focus group session.

A food diary will be given to Group A and B to complete for 7-days prior to their session. Topics to be discussed during the interview and the focus group sessions will include the food requirements of cancer patients, the barriers of the current food products, possible solutions to these requirements if any and their expectations towards new food solutions.

The study will involve conducting a tasting trial over a 2-weeks period where participants will be required to consume a maximum of three 3D printed texture-modified food based on the findings from Stage 1 and evaluate the food product by completing a structured questionnaire. Key questions areas covered by the questionnaire include appetite, sensory characteristics of the product (taste, flavour, mouthfeel/texture and smell), liking and acceptability, purchase intent and best place to buy the products; questions will involve rating scales as well as qualitative comments.

The study will involve conducting a home test over a one-month period where participants will be required to consume taste-optimised products based on the findings from Stage 1 and evaluate the food product by completing a structured questionnaire. Key questions areas covered by the questionnaire include appetite, sensory characteristics of the product (taste, flavour, mouthfeel/texture and smell), liking and acceptability, purchase intent and best place to buy the products; questions will involve rating scales as well as qualitative comments.

Participants (cancer patients that require texture-modified foods) will be expected to evaluate a maximum of three meals over a 2-weeks period.

Texture-modified foods for cancer patients (Stage 2)

Participants (cancer patients with taste \& smell alterations) will be expected to evaluate three foods at home over a period of one month.

Taste-optimised foods for cancer patients (Stage 3)

Stella Lignou, PhD

The ONCOFOOD project aims to design and develop new innovative food solutions for cancer patients, taking into account not only their nutritional requirements but also their sensory changes, promoting eating pleasure and preventing malnutrition. Research involving cancer patients but also their families and health care professionals is a key element of this approach to ensure the success of the developed products for the target group.

The study will be divided into three stages: in Stage 1, individual interviews will be conducted with present and past cancer patients, focus groups with families/care givers of cancer patients and health care professionals (cancer specialist nurses, clinical and medical oncologists, speech and language therapists, dietitians, oncology social workers and counselors). The interviews will help collect data and gain understanding on the needs of cancer patients, barriers to current food proposals and expectations from new solutions. In subsequent stages, semi-quantitative studies will be conducted with cancer patients that require texture-modified foods (Stage 2) and patients with taste \& smell alterations (Stage 3). Patients will be required to evaluate texture-modified products (developed using 3D food printing technology) and taste-optimised products (i.e. soups, mousses, fruit and vegetable beverages, dairy desserts and seasonings) developed based on the results obtained from Stage 1 above.

This is a 3 stage study design. The first stage will be a qualitative part with interviews and focus group sessions. In the second and third stages participants will evaluate food products. The second and third stages of the study will be conducted single blind as it is not feasible to blind the researcher.

All samples provided to the participant are labelled with 3 digit random codes.

New Food Solutions for Cancer Patients

Oncofood: New Food Solutions for Cancer Patients

No personal identification data will be shared. The study is not under an obligation to share data, however it is possible that some of the individual (unliked / non identifiable) data will be useful in a meta analysis and, hence sharing individual participant data (IPD) will be considered.

Acceptability of texture-modified food 1 using a questionnaire. Participants will be asked to rate their liking of appearance, aroma, taste, texture and overall using a 9-point hedonic scale where 1 is "dislike extremely" and 9 is "like extremely". They will also be asked to indicate their preference in comparison to usual products using a 5-point scale where 1 is "I much preferred this product to my usual products" and 5 is "I much prefer my usual products to this one". They will be asked to indicate whether they would buy this product using a 5-point scale where 1 is "definitely would buy" and 5 is "definitely would not buy".

Acceptability of texture-modified food 2 using a questionnaire. Participants will be asked to rate their liking of appearance, aroma, taste, texture and overall using a 9-point hedonic scale where 1 is "dislike extremely" and 9 is "like extremely". They will also be asked to indicate their preference in comparison to usual products using a 5-point scale where 1 is "I much preferred this product to my usual products" and 5 is "I much prefer my usual products to this one". They will be asked to indicate whether they would buy this product using a 5-point scale where 1 is "definitely would buy" and 5 is "definitely would not buy".

Acceptability of texture-modified food 3 using a questionnaire. Participants will be asked to rate their liking of appearance, aroma, taste, texture and overall using a 9-point hedonic scale where 1 is "dislike extremely" and 9 is "like extremely". They will also be asked to indicate their preference in comparison to usual products using a 5-point scale where 1 is "I much preferred this product to my usual products" and 5 is "I much prefer my usual products to this one". They will be asked to indicate whether they would buy this product using a 5-point scale where 1 is "definitely would buy" and 5 is "definitely would not buy".

Acceptability of taste-optimised food 1 using a questionnaire. Participants will be asked to rate their liking of appearance, aroma, taste, texture and overall using a 9-point hedonic scale where 1 is "dislike extremely" and 9 is "like extremely". They will also be asked to indicate their preference in comparison to usual products using a 5-point scale where 1 is "I much preferred this product to my usual products" and 5 is "I much prefer my usual products to this one". They will be asked to indicate whether they would buy this product using a 5-point scale where 1 is "definitely would buy" and 5 is "definitely would not buy".

Acceptability of taste-optimised food 2 using a questionnaire. Participants will be asked to rate their liking of appearance, aroma, taste, texture and overall using a 9-point hedonic scale where 1 is "dislike extremely" and 9 is "like extremely". They will also be asked to indicate their preference in comparison to usual products using a 5-point scale where 1 is "I much preferred this product to my usual products" and 5 is "I much prefer my usual products to this one". They will be asked to indicate whether they would buy this product using a 5-point scale where 1 is "definitely would buy" and 5 is "definitely would not buy".

Acceptability of taste-optimised food 3 using a questionnaire. Participants will be asked to rate their liking of appearance, aroma, taste, texture and overall using a 9-point hedonic scale where 1 is "dislike extremely" and 9 is "like extremely". They will also be asked to indicate their preference in comparison to usual products using a 5-point scale where 1 is "I much preferred this product to my usual products" and 5 is "I much prefer my usual products to this one". They will be asked to indicate whether they would buy this product using a 5-point scale where 1 is "definitely would buy" and 5 is "definitely would not buy".

Record of all that is eaten or drunk and any problems encountered during/after eating from cancer patients and relatives/caregivers of cancer patients.

Discussion on food related issues faced by cancer patients requiring texture-modified diets / having taste \& smell alterations via interviews.

Discussion on food related issues faced by cancer patients requiring texture-modified diets / having taste \& smell alterations with relatives/caregivers of cancer patients via a focus group session.

Discussion on food related issues faced by cancer patients requiring texture-modified diets / having taste \& smell alterations with healthcare professionals of cancer patients via a focus group session.

Study title	NCT ID	Conditions	Interventions	Eligibility	Organization	Link
New Food Solutions for Cancer Patients	NCT04302792	Cancer Patients Taste Disorders Food Selection	Texture-modifie... Taste-optimised...	18 Years - 65 Years	University of Reading
New Food Solutions for Cancer Patients	NCT04302792	Cancer Patients Taste Disorders Food Selection	Texture-modifie... Taste-optimised...	18 Years - 65 Years	University of Reading

Spots Global Cancer Trial Database for taste & smell alterations