Carolyn Bates
University of Kansas, KS·Psychology·Early-career
Children being treated for leukemia often gain a lot of weight in the first months of therapy, and that weight gain is not cosmetic: excessive weight gain leading to obesity during the early phases of pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) treatment is linked to higher relapse risk, lower event-free survival, and more adverse events during treatment. Despite this, there are no effective programs to prevent it.
- Fields
Psychology
Medicine & Clinical Research
Public Health & Epidemiology
- Topics
acute lymphoblastic leukemia
pediatric cancer
childhood obesity
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Aug 2028
What they work on
- Adapt the existing NOURISH-T family-based health promotion program into NOURISH-ALL for families of children in the early phases of acute lymphoblastic leukemia treatment, adding family systems and cognitive behavioral components that support coping with diagnosis and treatment stress.
- Gather semi-structured input from at least 10 families and youth with ALL and at least 6 multidisciplinary clinical experts, continuing to thematic saturation, to guide patient-centered changes to intervention content and delivery.
- Iteratively refine NOURISH-ALL through sequential testing with families and structured feedback until feasibility and acceptability ratings exceed 80% or 10 families complete the program.
- Pilot test the refined NOURISH-ALL intervention in a single-arm trial with 20 newly recruited families, measuring recruitment rate, retention at treatment completion, and intervention dose received to inform a future fully powered trial.
More about the research
This project develops and pilots one, with the long-term objective of reducing weight-related disparities in pediatric cancer treatment outcomes.
Why it matters
Children who gain excessive weight during early leukemia treatment face worse outcomes, including higher relapse risk and more treatment complications, yet no prevention program exists for this window. A feasible, family-centered intervention that also helps families cope with diagnosis stress could eventually be tested in a full trial and, if effective, reduce weight-related disparities in survival and treatment tolerance for youth with ALL.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Danielle Jake-Schoffman
University of Florida, FL·Public Health & Epidemiology
Refine the FamilyCollab smartwatch app, which supports parent-child goal setting, shared real-time exercise and reflection, through two rounds of usability studies with 12 parent-child pairs.
Chardée Galán
Pennsylvania State University, PA·Psychology
Refine the Video-feedback Intervention to Promote Background-Related Communication Competency (VIP-BCC) through repeated feedback rounds with advisory boards of youth, parents, family coaches, researchers, and clinicians.
Christina Amaro
Rutgers University-New Brunswick, NJ·Psychology·Early-career
Adapt an existing digital single-session intervention for adolescent siblings of children with cancer using solution-focused brief therapy, refined through Think Aloud sessions with 12 siblings.
The school
University of Kansas: 26 labs on PI Pages, $546M a year on research, 351 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
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