The K05 application for Barbara L. Andersen is submitted to enable a full time effort in cancer control research and mentoring. She is a professor in the Department of Psychology and a member of the Cancer Prevention and Control and the Immunology programs of the Comprehensive Cancer Center at the Ohio State University. A Biobehavioral Model of cancer stress and disease course (Andersen et al., 1994) provides a conceptual framework for the current research (CA92704, 7/01/01-6/30/06). The model includes psychological (stress and quality of life), behavioral (health behaviors and compliance), and biologic (endocrine and immune) factors and specifies the pathways for effects on health. A randomized clinical trial with breast cancer patients tests components of the model and efficacy of a psychological intervention. The research yields novel biobehavioral data, and the study is poised to experimentally test disease endpoint hypotheses. The K05 research goal is to extend the biobehavioral approach to the context of cancer recurrence. Despite its clinical importance, cancer recurrence has received little systematic study. The proposed controlled, prospective, longitudinal design has powerful methodological and scientific advantages, would yield unique data, and test related hypotheses of the R01 trial. Since the previous submission, the recurrence study has been funded (RSGPB-03-248; 7/1/03-6/30/08). The KO5 mentoring goal would continue Andersen's successful record during the past 20+ years of mentoring pre and postdoctoral trainees. She admits students with exceptional academic records who become trainee-collaborators in her interdisciplinary cancer control research. Enhanced mentoring is proposed to increase the trainees' level of professional maturity, enhance their scholarly record, and facilitate the transition of the 'best and the brightest' to careers as independent investigators and leaders in cancer prevention and control.
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