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Dr. Fenton’s lab is devoted to studying the vital role and experiences of understudied and disadvantaged populations of cancer caregivers and their impact on patients and their care with a specific focus on communication.
 
I use mixed methods to study and design interventions to improve the wellbeing of understudied caregiving populations and the patients they care for. I primarily focus on three caregiving populations (1) adult-children caring for a parent with advanced cancer, a vastly understudied population that constitutes the largest group of United States cancer caregivers, and often must balance caregiving with careers and young families; (2) Racial/ethnic minority cancer caregivers, who face greater financial burdens and discrimination than non-Hispanic White caregivers; and (3) those caring for rural patients who must navigate scarce and distant healthcare resources.
 
I am presently designing and testing the first intervention tailored for adult-child caregivers. The intervention, sponsored by a four-year Sidney Farber Scholar Award, will target caregivers’ and patients’ communication with each other and with their social networks to strengthen their social support. Importantly, the intervention will also address urban-rural disparities among caregivers and patients by tackling issues that those caring for rural patients face.
 

Racial and ethnic disparities in cancer caregiver burden and potential sociocultural mediators. Support Care Cancer. 2022 Nov; 30(11):9625-9633.
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Cancer Caregivers' Prognostic and End-of-Life Communication Needs and Experiences and their Impact. J Pain Symptom Manage. 2023 01; 65(1):16-25.
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Patients' and caregivers' experiences of hospitalization under COVID-19 visitation restrictions. J Hosp Med. 2022 10; 17(10):819-826.
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Developing and Field Testing BOLSTER: A Nurse-Led Care Management Intervention to Support Patients and Caregivers following Hospitalization for Gynecologic Cancer-Associated Peritoneal Carcinomatosis. J Palliat Med. 2022 09; 25(9):1367-1375.
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Comparing adult-child and spousal caregiver burden and potential contributors. Cancer. 2022 05 15; 128(10):2015-2024.
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Community oncologists' perceptions and utilization of large-panel genomic tumor testing. BMC Cancer. 2021 Nov 25; 21(1):1273.
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Patients' Expectations of Benefits From Large-Panel Genomic Tumor Testing in Rural Community Oncology Practices. JCO Precis Oncol. 2021; 5.
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Effect of provider recommendation style on the length of adolescent vaccine discussions. Vaccine. 2021 02 05; 39(6):1018-1023.
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Lived experiences of women reporting fatigue during PARP inhibitor maintenance treatment for advanced ovarian cancer: A qualitative study. Gynecol Oncol. 2021 01; 160(1):227-233.
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Differences in cancer patients' and clinicians' preferences for disclosure of uncertain genomic tumor testing results. Patient Educ Couns. 2021 01; 104(1):3-11.
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Improving HPV Vaccination Rates: A Stepped-Wedge Randomized Trial. Pediatrics. 2020 07; 146(1).
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Effect of a multi-component intervention on providers' HPV vaccine communication. Hum Vaccin Immunother. 2020 11 01; 16(11):2736-2743.
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Calling the Shots? Adolescents' Influence on Human Papillomavirus Vaccine Decision-Making During Clinical Encounters. J Adolesc Health. 2020 04; 66(4):447-454.
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Abandoning Medical Authority: When Medical Professionals Confront Stigmatized Adolescent Sex and the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccine. J Health Soc Behav. 2019 06; 60(2):240-256.
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Relative contributions of parental intention and provider recommendation style to HPV and meningococcal vaccine receipt. Hum Vaccin Immunother. 2019; 15(10):2460-2465.
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Geographic context of black-white disparities in Medicare CAHPS patient experience measures. Health Serv Res. 2019 02; 54 Suppl 1:275-286.
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Indicated or elective? The association of providers' words with HPV vaccine receipt. Hum Vaccin Immunother. 2018; 14(10):2503-2509.
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Unequal interactions: Examining the role of patient-centered care in reducing inequitable diffusion of a medical innovation, the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine. Soc Sci Med. 2018 03; 200:238-248.
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