Jennifer Dahne, Professor at the Medical University of South Carolina, shared a post on LinkedIn about an article she and her colleagues authored:
“In 2022, I came back from maternity leave honestly wondering if my brain even worked anymore. Around that time, I saw an NCI RFA led by Michelle Mollica and Lisa Gallicchio titled “Survivorship Needs for Individuals Living with Advanced and Metastatic Cancers.” The goal was to support studies that address survivorship needs for people living with likely incurable cancer, and that RFA ended up opening an entirely new research pathway in my career.
I looked around MUSC to find new colleagues to partner with and connected with Evan Graboyes. Together, we began working to address depression treatment needs among the growing population of cancer survivors who are living with cancer that is likely incurable. Early pilot funding from the MUSC Hollings Cancer Center helped us launch this line of work. Building on that foundation, we received an MPI R01 under this RFA that now supports much of our ongoing collaboration.
As we moved forward, it became clear that there is a strong need for consistent terminology to describe this emerging group of survivors who are living with likely incurable cancer. A lack of terminological clarity makes it harder to advance research and to build clinical care models that truly reflect the needs of individuals living with likely incurable cancer. This gap gave life to our new paper in JCO Oncology Practice, “Characterizing Survivors Living With Likely Incurable Cancer: A Closer Look at an Emerging Population.”
I am especially grateful to our first author, Shivani Sharma, who steered this paper while completing her research fellowship funded by our NCI R01, and to our senior author, Evan Graboyes, for his leadership throughout this work. I am also very grateful to our co-authors Lisa Gallicchio, Ph.D., Michelle Mollica, PhD, MPH RN, OCN, FAAN, Emily Smith Tonorezos, Laura Petrillo, Shelley Fuld Nasso, and Bethany Ross. Tagging you here to say thank you for your contributions to these efforts.
This has been a very meaningful research path for me and for my research team. I am deeply grateful to the National Cancer Institute (NCI) for putting forward the original RFA that set this in motion. If you are working in this space or have thoughts about how we define and care for individuals living with likely incurable cancer, we would love to hear your reactions to the paper.”
Title: Characterizing Survivors Living With Likely Incurable Cancer: A Closer Look at an Emerging Population
Authors: Shivani Sharma, Jennifer Dahne, Lisa Gallicchio, Michelle A. Mollica, Emily Tonorezos, Laura A. Petrillo, Shelley Fuld Nasso, Bethany Ross, Evan M. Graboyes
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