BREAST cancer patients are being invited to attend a 'telephone clinic' for their after-care as part of a research study.

Instead of attending an outpatients' clinic at Blackpool Victoria Hospital for routine check-ups after completing treatment, study volunteers will be offered follow-up care via 20 minute telephone appointments with a specialist breast care nurse.

The study, jointly funded by the Medical Research Council and Lancashire Rosemere Cancer Foundation, is being co-ordinated by Dr Kinta Beaver, a research fellow from the school of nursing at the University of Manchester.

She said: "When patients go to an outpatient clinic for their follow-up appointment they will be seen by a doctor who will give them a physical examination and ask if they have any problems.

"The clinics are often busy and there is not a lot of time to discuss other issues such as their emotional wellbeing.

"With the telephone clinic the patients will still be sent an appointment card giving them an allocated time when the specialist breast care nurse will telephone them.

"The nurse will ask them a series of questions about their physical wellbeing, but they will also be given time to discuss anything that is concerning them, talk about how they are coping and be given any further information they need to support them."

She was talking about the project at a meeting of the Breast Cancer Patient Support Group in the Macmillan Windmill Unit, Blackpool Victoria Hospital, yesterday.

And she invited patients who have recently completed breast cancer treatment to take part in the study.

For more information e-mail Kinta Beaver at kinta.beaver@man.ac.uk or telephone 0161 275 5347 or 01253 891281.