Cancer Support Supportive Care Research Partnership and Collaboration

Through collaboration, mobilizing partnerships, and synergizing efforts with different institutions, organizations, and individuals, we are improving the quality of life and health outcomes.

Learn About our Partnerships

  • In October 2017, the Collaborative was awarded $50,000 from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) as part of their Pipeline to Proposals Tier A Pre-Engagement/Community Projects initiative.
  • Dr. Marlon Garzo Saria is one of the founding stakeholders of the Collaborative. Stakeholders in the Brain Cancer Quality of Life Collaborative include patients, family members, social workers, nurses, neuro-oncologists, palliative care experts, researchers and others, each with a unique perspective on how best to offer palliative care.
  • The experience of palliative care for patients with brain cancer and their families is frequently suboptimal, with many patients relying on family members to be their best advocates—a role for which those family members may not be suited or may not want to fulfill. Families want to spend time building memories, not navigating the healthcare system.
  • Optimizing palliative care may require improved coordination with the patient’s entire care team over the full course of illness—rather than the more typical episodic, symptom-based approaches that are reactive rather than proactive.
  • CancerLife and Quality of Life specialist Dr. Marlon Garzo Saria, have completed a Quality of Life research study focused on cancer patients, caregivers and survivors.
  • Understanding the correlation and implications on how social sharing and patient reported outcomes (PRO) data affect patients quality of life has breakthough potential as it may help doctors better understand how the next wave of cancer drugs will impact patients’ quality of life.
  • CancerLife is deeply committed to helping patients, survivors and caregivers—around the world experience a better quality of life. With that said, CancerLife’s goal is to become the world’s first cancer care complementary digital therapeutic.
  • CancerLife is teaming with several nonprofits and patient groups that want to come together to help improve quality of life for all patients and participate in this pioneering study. All partners will have access to this data which will be shared with the industry to help improve care for all.
  • The EndBrainCancer Initiative (EBCI) Receives Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI)-Certification Becoming the First Brain Tumor Patient Advocacy Organization Listed as a Nationally-Recognized Recruiting Site.
  • EBCI is poised to serve as a recruiting site for clinical trials across the U.S. starting with the clinical trial, An Exploratory Study of Caregiver Burden Among Family Caregivers of Patients with Cancer (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT03069105), which explores the caregiver burden among family caregivers of patients with cancer.
  • EBCI interacts intensively with patient caregivers. The initial clinical study EBCI is recruiting for focuses on the role and burden of the caregiver.
  • “The role of EBCI in the development and conduct of research is not only important, it is necessary. There is a growing consensus to advance the role of patients and the public in research. In fact, it is now more common to see patient and public involvement as a requirement to receive funding in many countries, including the UK, the Netherlands, Canada, Australia, and the USA. EBCI serves as the perfect liaison between researchers and patients. EBCI serves as the voice of patients and their families and also helps advocate and support research. I believe that the partnership we have with EBCI will be a model of academic-public collaboration in advancing the science of caregiving.” -Dr. Marlon Garzo Saria
  • Marlon Garzo Saria is the founding chair of the PSJCH.
  • The purpose and duty of the NRC is to support and encourage nursing staff involvement in research and research activities. It is the Council’s belief that nursing staff involvement in research will not only improve the quality of care delivered at Providence Saint John’s Health Center, but will also attract and retain some of the best and brightest nurses.
  • The mission of the NRC is to Create, nurture, and sustain a culture of inquiry among professional nurses at PSJHC.
  • The NRC is a member of the Providence Southern California Regional Nursing Research Council and the Providence Saint Joseph Health Nursing Research and Clinical Scholarship Council
Marilyn J. Hammer, PhD, DC, RN
  • Director, Research & Evidence Based Practice
  • Department of Nursing
  • The Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, NY
Jerome Dayao, MSN, RN, NEA-BC, CPHQ, HACP, CCRN, PCCN
  • Chief Nursing Officer
  • Arrowhead Regional Medical Center, Colton, CA
Lavoy Bray Jr, RN-BC, PMHN, BSN, Med
  • Deputy Director 66C Psychiatric/Behavioral Health Nursing Course
  • Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, MD
Shannon La Cava, PhD
  • Clinical Program Director
  • Cancer Support Community, Los Angeles, CA
Major Daniel Nelson, DO
  • Surgical Oncologist
  • William Beaumont Army Medical Center, El Paso, TX
CDR William Danchanko, MSN, ANP-BC, AOCNP
  • Chief, Center for Nursing Science and Clinical Inquiry
  • Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, MD
William William R. Saltzman, Ph.D
  • Professor and Coordinator, Marriage and Family Therapy Program Department of Advanced Studies in Education & Counseling
  • California State University, Long Beach, CA