Academy pays tribute to research with Dlin/Fischer Award
This year’s Dlin/Fischer Clinical Research Award has been made to Jennifer Knight, MD, FACLP, medical director of the Froedtert & Medical College of Wisconsin Psycho-Oncology Program.
The award pays tribute to research findings presented by Dr. Knight, et al: Social disparities and cancer: The biologic fingerprint of stress is transplantable and associated with worse clinical outcomes.
In the paper, the authors highlight how low socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with increased serious psychological distress and adverse cancer outcomes. Allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) carries significant risks, with low SES predictive of increased morbidity and mortality.
“The underlying mechanism of this disparity is not fully explained by race, insurance status, or access to care,” the authors say. “SES is multidimensional, encompassing income, education, poverty, housing, and employment; challenges within any of these dimensions can lead to acute and chronic stress.
“Chronic stress is increasingly recognized as a mechanism by which SES influences health outcomes through activation of neural and endocrine pathways that influence pro-inflammatory gene regulation.
“We have demonstrated that upregulation of the stress- and SES-related gene expression profile termed the ‘conserved transcriptional response to adversity’ is associated with low SES and worse outcomes among HCT recipients.”
The Dlin/Fischer Clinical Research Award will be presented at 9:15 AM on Friday, November 10, as part of the Psycho-Oncology oral papers session.