Phyllis F. Cantor Center for Research in Nursing and Patient Care Services

The mission of the Cantor Center is to reduce the burden of cancer through scholarly inquiry and rigorous research. The focus of the Center's research is the patient/family experience of living with a predisposition to or diagnosis of cancer, as well as survivorship issues post-treatment.

A focused mission

Donna L. Berry, PhD, RN, AOCN, FAAN, Director 

The Cantor Center's efforts focus on three major areas: 1) conducting innovative research on quality of life and quality of care for cancer patients and families; 2) engaging nurses and other Dana-Farber patient care staff in research; and 3) promoting the use of research evidence to ensure that patient care is of the highest standards.

Research themes

Donna L. Berry, PhD, RN, AOCN, FAAN, along with Mary Cooley, PhD, APRN, and Jennifer Allen, ScD, MPH, RN, conduct a variety of clinical trials. The three nurse-scientists engage direct care nurses at Dana-Farber in research relevant to their fields of expertise, thereby creating a direct link between science and practice.

Berry conducts research on improving cancer symptom management by enhancing self-care, patient-clinician communication, and cancer treatment decision making. Her recent findings that the Electronic Self-Report Assessment for Cancer (ESRA-C) program significantly improved patient-provider communication about cancer symptoms and quality-of-life concerns were based in a trial conducted of adult patients with cancer. The ESRA-C is the first electronic system tested in a large randomized trial with a direct outcome measure.

Cooley is developing a decision support system and conducting a clinical trial of symptom management in lung cancer. She is also studying smoking cessation behaviors and therapies in patients with cancer and their family members.

Allen's research focuses on developing and testing interventions to promote screening for early detection of cancer. She is also interested in understanding decision making related to the human papilloma virus vaccine.

Of note

The Center's Grant Portfolio increased five-fold in 2009, reflecting the growing success of Dana-Farber in this high-priority research area.