Category: Trial updates

The team at Bristol Trials Centre are delighted to announce that we have just opened our first site, University Hospitals Southampton! The UK Chief Investigator, Prof Mark Edwards, is based at Southampton so we hope to see our first recruit very soon. We would like to thank everyone in the central trial team, the ANZCA team and the Southampton team that helped us get to this point.

The LOLIPOP trial aims to determine whether the administration of lidocaine by infusion will decrease the incidence of moderate or severe Chronic Post-Surgical Pain (CPSP) in patients undergoing elective primary surgical procedures for breast cancer. The trial has been recruiting in Australasia and Hong Kong for some time and we are excited to see it up and running in the UK.

We are still seeking sites for the UK arm of the trial. If you work at an NHS hospital that may be interested in participating please get in touch with us by email: lolipop-trial@bristol.ac.uk

The LOLIPOP trial is already taking place in other countries. Australia is the lead country and the Australian trial team completed a pilot trial of lidocaine infusions in 150 patients undergoing breast cancer surgery in three hospitals in Western Australia. The results have shown that the methods are safe but more participants in the trial are needed to find out if lidocaine is effective in preventing chronic pain. The trial is now being run in the UK, and we hope to do this in around 10 NHS hospitals across the country.

Why are we running the LOLIPOP trial?

When patients undergo surgery they may experience lots of pain around the area operated on. In some cases, patients’ pain can last for years, and cannot be helped with medicine, resulting in lower quality of life. This is particularly common after breast cancer surgery, with 1 in 4 women reporting significant pain many years later. There are currently no established treatments that prevent persistent pain after surgery.

Local anaesthetics are drugs that give pain relief to the area in which they are applied. The LOLIPOP trial aims to find out whether a type of local anaesthetic, lidocaine, given via a drip during breast cancer surgery and for up to 24 hours afterwards, reduces the number of patients reporting significant pain one year after their surgery.