Research
Ongoing Projects
Defining Symptom Trajectories to Inform Risk-Stratified Approaches to Symptom Management in Children with Advanced Cancer.
The aims of this application are to (1) define symptom trajectories over time among children aged 8-18 with advanced cancer, (2) identify biopsychosocial characteristics that distinguish patient subgroups, (3) examine the association between patient subgroups and health outcomes, and (4) explore developmental variation in symptom experiences. To achieve these aims, we will prospectively enroll 237 children aged 8 to18 living with advanced cancer across five pediatric cancer centers.
This study is funded by the National Institutes of Health (R01CA307143-01) and is registered through Clinical Trials.gov (NCT07804875)
Pediatric oncology clinicians’ experiences with symptom assessment and managing multi-informant symptom data
The goal of this project is to explore how pediatric oncology physicians, advanced practice providers, and nurses assess symptoms in routine care. We are interested in learning about their current approaches, how they communicate with children and caregivers, and gain an overall understanding of the child’s symptoms. We will explore their ideas for a future state that incorporates patient-reported outcomes in clinical care.
This study is funded by the Shawn Forseth Fund.
Risk-stratified approaches to symptom management for children with advanced cancer
The goal of this project is to partner with children and adolescents with advanced cancer and their caregivers to develop a framework to guide symptom assessment and management based on a child’s risk for experiencing high symptom burden. We believe a one-size-fits-all approach to symptom assessment and management may lead to burden for patients, families, and clinicians and hope to create a novel structure to match the frequency of assessment and intensity of management to the patient’s current and anticipated symptom experiences.
This study is funded by the Mattie Miracle Cancer Foundation, the Association of Pediatric Hematology Oncology Nurses and the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center Palliative Care Disease Oriented Team (Ivan & Sandra Haynes fund).
Recently Completed Projects
Child-caregiver dyad communication and concordance in symptom reporting during cancer treatment
The goal of this multi-site project was to better understand how the quality of child-caregiver communication may influence the level of agreement between children’s and caregivers’ reports of the child’s symptoms. We enhanced our understanding of how communication can influence symptom agreement between children and their caregivers, and how different factors like rural residency and anxiety can impact overall health. We recently published our findings in various journals listed below.
Olsavsky, A., Peek, M., Montgomery, K., Skeens, M. A. (2026). A dyadic approach to understanding anxiety and child overall health in pediatric oncology: Insights from an actor–partner interdependence model. Quality of Life Research, 35(200), 0. DOI: doi.org/10.1007/s11136-026-04312-x
Kochashvili, M., Olsavsky, A., Ranalli, M., Montgomery, K., Skeens, M. A. (2026). Rural residency and its associations with symptom experience and overall health in pediatric cancer patients. Children’s Health Care(0), 1-15. DOI: doi.org/10.1080/02739615.2026.2687451
Skeens, M. A., Olsavsky, A., Kochashvili, M., Alshakhshir, N., Basha, M., Newman, A. R., Montgomery, K. (2026). Toward better conversations: Assessing caregiver–child communication in pediatric oncology. Supportive Care in Cancer, 34(3), 210. DOI: doi.org/10.1007/s00520-026-10446-y
This study was funded by an award from the William F. Vilas Trust Estate.
A feasibility study exploring discordance between child and parent symptom reports during cancer treatment
The goal of this project was to explore child and caregiver perspectives recognizing and communicating their/their child’s symptoms. Using qualitative methods, we interviewed children and their caregivers independently after completing a brief symptom questionnaire. We published our findings in the Journal Palliative & Supportive Care.
Montgomery, K., Al-Shakhshir, N., Basha, M., Geenen, E., Nyholm, L., Skeens, M. A. (2024). An exploratory qualitative study on factors influencing the level of agreement in symptom reports in child-caregiver dyads. Palliative and Supportive Care, 1–11. DOI: 10.1017/S1478951524001172.
This study was funded by the UW Carbone Cancer Center Palliative Care Disease Oriented Team (Ivan & Sandra Haynes fund).
Collaborators
Dr. Micah Skeens and the Skeens Lab at Nationwide Children’s Hospital
Dr. Jennifer Raybin at Oregon Health Sciences University
Dr. Leena Nahata and the Nahata Lab at Nationwide Children’s Hospital