Debra L. Barton, RN, PhD, AOCN

2009-2010 BCRF Project:
Co-Invesigator: Charles Loprinzi, MD, Professor, Oncology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester

Fatigue is a common and debilitating problem for cancer survivors. Fatigue often exists during treatment, but can persist long after treatment is over. There is only one proven treatment for this symptom to date, namely, exercise. In order to develop new treatments, there is a better need to understand the cause of fatigue. The project to evaluate American ginseng for cancer-related fatigue and to collect blood and saliva to better understand the physiology of this fatigue, is progressing on schedule. Twenty-eight different community institutions from across the US have put the study through all the approval processes and have started to enroll participants. There are currently 120 people on study (towards a goal of 200), and over 50 of those have provided blood and saliva. The people contributing specimens are those not currently receiving chemotherapy or radiation therapy.

The Mayo Clinic researchers are enrolling 10 to 20 people per month. They are storing these specimens in a very cold freezer and, due to their very quick accrual, are getting ready to send their first batch of blood to UCLA for cytokine analysis (markers of inflammation) and saliva samples to Germany to do cortisol analysis (a marker of physiologic stress). They have increased minority recruitment in order to explore whether there are differences in biology of fatigue in people from different racial and ethnic backgrounds. The researchers are on schedule to finish accrual to this study by the fall of 2010.

Mid-Year Progress Report:
The study, to evaluate the utility of American ginseng for cancer related fatigue and to collect blood and saliva to better understand the physiology of this fatigue, is proceeding on schedule. Thirty-three community institutions from across the United States have put the study through all the approval processes and have started to enroll participants. There are currently 205 people on study, with over 100 of those who have provided blood and saliva samples. The people contributing specimens are those not concurrently receiving chemotherapy or radiation therapy.

Dr. Barton and her group have been enrolling over 10 people a month. They have sent one batch of saliva samples to Germany and one batch of plasma samples to UCLA for analysis. They are receiving the results from the laboratory analyses of these samples and putting them into a statistical database. Due to good accrual, they will send out another batch of specimens for analysis soon, and they expect to be on schedule to finish accrual to the study by the end of 2010.

Bio:
Debra Barton is an Associate Professor of Oncology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. She also serves as program coordinator for the Community Clinical Oncology Program (CCOP) Research Base of the North Central Cancer Treatment Group, where she is a clinical investigator. Dr. Barton is a full member of the Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center and part of the leadership team for Cancer Prevention and Control.

Dr. Barton received her doctoral degree from Indiana University School of Nursing in Indianapolis. Dr. Barton has developed clinical trials to improve the health-related quality of life of cancer survivors in several areas including cognitive function, fatigue, sleep, hot flashes, neuropathy, sexual health, and nausea and vomiting. Her greatest contributions include the generation and dissemination of nursing knowledge which has transformed practice for cancer survivors in non-hormonal alternatives for hot flash management, sexual health and complementary therapies.

Dr. Barton is being inducted as a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing in November, 2008. She is a member of Mayo Clinic's Institutional Review Board and is on the faculty at Mayo’s Graduate School in Clinical and Translational Sciences. Dr. Barton serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, is a Director at Large for the Society of Integrative Oncology, and serves as liaison from the National Cancer Institute Symptom Management/Quality of Life steering committee to the Investigational Drug Development Steering Committee. She also is a member of review committees for the National Institute of Health and the Department of Veterans Affairs, and takes an active role in committees and projects with her national specialty organization, the Oncology Nursing Society.