David Hui
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, TX·Medicine & Clinical Research
Breathlessness, called dyspnea, affects nearly 70% of people with advanced cancer. It is one of the most distressing symptoms they face.
- Fields
Medicine & Clinical Research
Public Health & Epidemiology
- Topics
dyspnea
breathlessness
cancer
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Apr 2030
What they work on
- Compare the respiratory therapist-led SPOT-ON intervention with enhanced usual care on the change in dyspnea intensity at 24 hours in hospitalized cancer patients with hypoxemia, in a randomized trial.
- Test the same comparison in hospitalized cancer patients without hypoxemia, examining whether various oxygen delivery modalities relieve breathlessness even when blood oxygen is normal.
- Compare outcomes over 72 hours, including dyspnea unpleasantness, response to a personalized dyspnea goal, vital signs, symptom burden, quality of life, adverse events, device use, and hospital outcomes.
- Identify factors associated with SPOT-ON benefit, including patient demographics, preferences, and level of use of oxygen delivery modalities.
More about the research
It limits daily function, lowers quality of life, and is linked to shorter survival. Standard options such as low-flow oxygen and opioids work poorly, and no FDA-approved treatment exists. The long-term goal is to build evidence-based therapies that relieve dyspnea in cancer patients.
Why it matters
Hospitalized patients with advanced cancer who struggle to breathe currently have few effective, evidence-based options. If a respiratory therapist-led, personalized approach to oxygen and support therapies proves effective, it could change how hospitals manage dyspnea. It could also improve these patients' quality of life.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Virginia LeBaron
University of Virginia, VA·Medicine & Clinical Research
Develop digital phenotypes, distinctive data patterns of the advanced cancer pain experience at home, using smartwatch and environmental sensor data from the BESI-C system. The phenotypes will cover how often pain events occur, how intense they are, and how they affect quality of life.
Sarah Miller
Medical University of South Carolina, SC·Medicine & Clinical Research
Test whether RESP-FIT, a home program of respiratory muscle strength training with a portable device and mobile health support, reduces shortness of breath in rural adults with COPD, using a randomized controlled trial against enhanced usual care.
Jacqueline Kruser
University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI·Medicine & Clinical Research
Map how time-limited trials of mechanical ventilation are actually carried out in five ICUs, using focused ethnography of 50 trials in patients with acute respiratory failure.
The school
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center: 23 labs on PI Pages, $1.4B a year on research.
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