Kathryn Flynn
Medical College of Wisconsin, WI·Medicine & Clinical Research
Many women treated for hormone receptor positive breast cancer are prescribed endocrine therapy. These are daily pills such as tamoxifen or an aromatase inhibitor, taken for five to ten years.
- Fields
Medicine & Clinical Research
Public Health & Epidemiology
Pharmacology
- Topics
breast cancer
endocrine therapy
tamoxifen
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jul 2029
What they work on
- Test whether 12 months of symptom monitoring with clinical pharmacist follow-up improves adherence to oral endocrine therapy among breast cancer patients with poor adherence, in a randomized study, and whether the effect lasts to 24 months.
- Model how patient-reported symptoms such as pain and menopausal symptoms change over time in intervention versus control groups, and by adherence level, since side effects may rise as more pills are taken.
- Use mediation analysis to test whether the intervention works through symptom severity, self-efficacy in managing medications and symptoms, team communication, or social support.
More about the research
They cut the risk of the cancer returning nearly in half and improve survival. Yet almost half of patients do not take all their pills. Women often name pain, menopausal symptoms and other side effects as major reasons. Earlier efforts based on education and reminders had small effects, and more complex programs were hard to keep running.
Why it matters
Women with hormone receptor positive breast cancer who skip endocrine therapy face a higher risk of recurrence. A pharmacist-supported symptom monitoring program could help thousands of women stay on treatment that halves recurrence risk. Because many newly approved cancer drugs are taken as pills at home, the approach could also serve as a model for supporting adherence to other oral cancer medications and inform how oncology care is delivered.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Jia-Rong Wu
University of Tennessee-Knoxville, TN·Medicine & Clinical Research
Test whether the nurse-delivered FamLit intervention improves medication adherence over 12 months in heart failure patients and their care partners, compared with an attention-control group, in a randomized trial of 164 dyads.
Gita Mody
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC·Medicine & Clinical Research·Early-career
Identify the optimal survey and alert features and clinic workflow for an electronic patient-reported outcome (ePRO) system that monitors symptoms after thoracic surgery.
Emily Henkle
Oregon Health & Science University, OR·Medicine & Clinical Research
Enroll three cohorts of patients with NTM lung disease, at diagnosis (NTM-WATCH), at treatment start (NTM-TREAT) and at treatment end (NTM-TRACK), and collect patient-reported outcomes and clinical data for up to 24 months.
The school
Medical College of Wisconsin: 17 labs on PI Pages, $360M a year on research, 44 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
A start for your email. Fill in the brackets.