Current Research Projects
Efficacy of Group Intervention to Reduce Stress Symptoms
Funded by: National Institutes of Health
Project Investigator: Professor Cheryl Gore-Felton, Ph.D.
Stress has been associated with faster disease progression and worse overall psychological and physical outcomes among persons living with HIV or AIDS. We hope to determine how best to treat stress in men and women living with HIV or AIDS. To do this, we plan to enroll 290 adults who are 18 years or older, HIV positive, and live in San Francisco, Alameda, San Mateo, or Santa Clara counties into a study that will assist participants in learning how to deal with stressful experiences that they may have experienced recently or in the past, how to manage their HIV disease, and how to improve their relationships.
For more information, please email Susanne Lee.
Sleep, Circadian, Hormonal Dysregulation, and Breast Cancer Survival
Funded by: National Institutes of Health
Project Investigator: Dr. David Spiegel, M.D.
We hope to learn about the relationships between psychological factors such as stress, quality of sleep, hormones, immunity, and cancer progression. To conduct this study, we plan to recruit 105 research participants living with metastatic or recurrent breast cancer and 20 women who do not have breast cancer to serve as a comparison group. The study includes two weeks of activity recording by wearing a discreet "activity watch" and filling out a questionnaire about sleep each morning. During those two weeks sleep EEG data will be recorded for two consecutive nights. Finally, within a month of the EEG recordings, there will be an overnight stay at Stanford hospital where saliva and small blood samples will be collected as well as the EEG.
If you are interested in participating in this study, please click here to fill out a short survey.
For more information, please email Bita Nouriani.
Effects of Stress on Immune Function & Health
Funded by: National Institutes of Health
Principal Investigator: Professor Firdaus Dhabhar, Ph.D.
Although stress generally has a "bad" reputation, a short-term stress is response is nature's fundamental protective mechanism without which neither predator nor prey could survive. We are interested in identifying biological mechanisms that mediate and differentiate the recently appreciated immunoenhancing effects of short-term stress (eustress) from the well-known immunosuppressive effects of long-term stress (distress). We hope to use the knowledge gained from these studies to design bio-behavioral interventions that would harness endogenous mediators to manipulate immune function to confer maximum benefit for the patient. Our pre-clinical studies involve models of skin cell-mediated immunity, vaccines, and skin cancer. Collaborative clinical research projects examine psychological, endocrine, and immune factors in the context of breast cancer (Spiegel et al, Stanford), knee surgery (Ickovics et al, Yale), caregiving stress (Epel et al, UCSF), depression (Wolkowitz et al, UCSF), meditation (Saron et al. UC Davis), and post-traumatic stress disorder (Altemus et al, Cornell).
For more information, please email Dr. Firdaus Dhabhar.
Expanding Rural Access: Distance Delivery of Support
Funded by a research grant from the University of California Breast Cancer Research Program
Research Principal Investigator: Cheryl Koopman, Ph.D., Stanford University
Community Principal Investigators: Mary Anne Kreshka, M.A., and Jim Perkins, Dr.P.H.
Northern Sierra Rural Health Network
Research has shown professionally-led support groups to be an effective form of psychosocial support for women with breast cancer, yielding psychological and health benefits. Women living with breast cancer in rural areas are likely to exhaust their usual sources of psychosocial support while facing challenges posed by breast cancer, but are unlikely to have access to professionally-led support groups. Previous research suggests that support can be provided at a distance via the modality of videoconferencing and paired with the content of the workbook-journal One In Eight. Using this modality, a small group of women can gather at their local clinic, a location that is familiar to them and relatively close geographically, while in real time they participate interactively by video with a professional group leader and other women at other sites. In a randomized clinical trial with 100 women diagnosed with breast cancer, we will evaluate the efficacy of this support group intervention for meeting the psychosocial support needs of women with breast cancer in nine rural counties in the Intermountain Region of northeastern California. We will also evaluate whether this intervention provides an acceptable and satisfactory form of psychosocial support for women. This research has the potential to inform the design and implementation of a technology-based intervention that would be widely accessible to women with breast cancer in rural communities. It could lead to support groups delivered via videoconferencing becoming part of routine care for women in these communities and similar interventions being developed for persons living with other health problems.
For more information, please email Dr. Cheryl Koopman.
Effect of Cortisol Function on Memory and Emotion Processing in Breast Cancer
Project Investigators: David Spiegel, M.D. and Shelli Kesler, Ph.D.
Cortisol is a stress related hormone that tends to affect structures in the brain responsible for memory and emotion processing. Women with breast cancer have been shown to have abnormal cortisol patterns, possibly related to chronic stress. We have collected brain imaging and cortisol data from women with breast cancer and are currently recruiting healthy women age 40-71 to participate in this study. We hope to learn more about how cortisol interacts with brain structures during memory and emotion processing tasks in women with breast cancer compared to healthy controls. The study includes a brain MRI scan and collection of saliva samples during 2 consecutive days.
For more information, please email Dr. Shelli Kesler.
Multi-Method Examination of Diverse Manifestations of Lyme Disease
Funded by Turn the Corner Foundation and the California Lyme Disease Association; IGeneX, Inc. is also providing support.
Principal Investigator: Cheryl Koopman, Ph.D.
Consultants: Daniel Cameron, M.D., Raphael Stricker, M.D. and Christine Green, M.D.
Biostatistician: Tyson Holmes, Ph.D.
Project Director: Yvonne Lin, PA-C
The overall goals of our research project are twofold: (1) To systematically characterize different patterns of manifestations of Lyme Disease: a) in a large sample of patients seen in clinical practice who have been diagnosed with Lyme Disease for who we have retrospective medical record data; and b) in an additional sample of 100 patients diagnosed with Lyme Disease who will be recruited for the prospective phase of this research; and (2) To evaluate and compare the sensitivity of various antibody and PCR assays against patients’ and comparison groups’ clinical diagnosis and symptom and illness patterns. This research is inspired by considerations of the critical need for further research that recognizes the diverse manifestations of Lyme disease.
For more information, please email Dr. Cheryl Koopman.
Stress, the HPA and Health in Aging
Principal Investigator: David Spiegel, M.D.
The goal of this Program Project grant is to determine how stress and depression affect the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) and the course of breast cancer, cardiovascular risk factors and cognitive impairment.
For more information, please email Dr. David Spiegel.
