Alexandra Smith

• PhD, GradCertHE, BA (Hons I)
• Senior Research Partner | Manager Oncology Trials & Research at NSW Regional Cancer Research Network | North West Cancer Centre

Within palliative care, clear and open communication about death is encouraged. Euphemisms are discouraged as threats to promoting clear understanding of the prognosis; to opening communication about what a good death means to individual patients and families; and to fostering collaborative planning aimed at achieving this 'good death'. Principles...

The breastfeeding body is a site of complex, contested, and conspicuously moralised practices that has long been a focus for research in the social sciences through to the arts and humanities. Often too the maternal, lactating body is situated within a biomedical frame that marks the milk-producing body as problematic, failing, and subject to and o...

Background: Malignancies are the leading cause of disease burden in Australia, comprising 19% of total diseases. Approximately 1 in 4 men and 1 in 6 women die from malignancies by 85 years of age, with patients aged 65 years and older contributing to 58% of diagnoses and 76% of cancer mortality. In the context of malignancy-related disease and age-...

BACKGROUND Cancer is one of the predominant causes of morbidity and mortality in older adult populations worldwide. Among a range of barriers, comorbidity particularly poses a clinical challenge in cancer diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment owing to its heterogeneous nature. While accurate comorbidity assessments and appropriate treatment administr...

Eco-anxiety and associated emotions are on the rise. International estimates range from 25–68% prevalence. Australians now regard climate change as their top concern for the future, with some young people reconsidering their intentions to become parents. The emotional sequela from climate change is becoming clearer. How it is conceptualised, respon...

Purpose Immunotherapies have revolutionized cancer treatment; however, relatively little is known about their efficacy and toxicity in the elderly, a cohort accounting for more than half of total cancer cases. In this review, we aim to provide insight into the current knowledge base regarding the clinical utility and side effects of immunotherapies...

Experiences of advanced cancer are assembled and (re)positioned with reference to illness, symptoms and maintaining 'wellbeing'. Medical cannabis is situated at a borderline in this and the broader social domain: between stigmatised and normalised; recreational and pharmaceutical; between perception, experience, discourse and scientific proof of be...

BACKGROUND Bladder cancer is the third most common urological malignancy, and one of the 15 most common cancers, diagnosed in Australia. This reflects a global landscape in which it is the most common urological malignancy and responsible for over 400,000 diagnoses and around 165,000 deaths per year.1-3 Despite changing treatment paradigms, surviva...

Introduction Following 2016 legislation permitting limited access to cannabis for research and medicinal purposes, the number of randomized clinical trials (RCTs) investigating the effectiveness of medicinal cannabis (MC) on symptom burden relief in cancer contexts has increased in Australia. This study aimed to understand the perceptions, hopes an...

Background Recruitment for randomised controlled trials in palliative care can be challenging; disease progression and terminal illness underpin high rates of attrition. Research into participant decision-making in medicinal cannabis randomised controlled trials (RCTs) is very limited. Nesting qualitative sub-studies within RCTs can identify furthe...

Low‐dose computed tomography lung cancer screening has mortality benefits. Yet, uptake has been low. To inform strategies to better deliver and promote screening, in 2018, we interviewed 27 long‐term smokers immediately following lung cancer screening in Australia, prior to receiving scan results. Existing lung screening studies employ the Health B...

Purpose To explore patients’, caregivers’, and health professionals’ perspectives on barriers and challenges to accessing, commencing and completing cancer therapy, with a focus on geriatric patients and the impacts of comorbidities and rurality. Patients and Methods A qualitative sub-study using focus group discussions was conducted in a regional...

Background: Cancer is one of the predominant causes of morbidity and mortality in older adult populations worldwide. Among a range of barriers, comorbidity particularly poses a clinical challenge in cancer diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment owing to its heterogeneous nature. While accurate comorbidity assessments and appropriate treatment administ...

BACKGROUND Malignancies are the leading cause of disease burden in Australia, comprising 19% of total diseases. An estimated one in four men and one in six women die from malignancies by the age of 85, with patients >65 years contributing to 58% of diagnosed cases and 76% of cancer mortality. In this context characterised by malignancy-related dise...

The introduction of new electronic tools or alterations to existing ones can easily founder on user reluctance unless due consideration is given to how the technology fits into users' lives and meets their needs. This is a commonplace for technology developers yet all too often at the point of implementation, such factors are forced into second pla...

This paper draws on the findings from an Australian national survey of partnerships between schools, homes and communities to improve children’s numeracy. While such partnerships are routinely touted as important tools in promoting more engagement with mathematics and better mathematics outcomes, in fact they face many hurdles. We describe some of...