
There are approximately 240,000 Kentucky residents with a history of cancer. In 2021, there will be an estimated 30,270 new cancer cases diagnosed in Kentucky.
Dr. Stephanie Boone, a cancer researcher at UofL Health – Brown Cancer Center, is the lead investigator and part of a Kentucky Cancer Survivorship team of researchers hoping to learn from Kentucky residents who are cancer survivors. The new study is an online survey, open to adults over the age of 18, living in Kentucky, and newly diagnosed with cancer within the past 12 months. The survey asks questions about your emotional, physical and mental health through your cancer journey both during and after treatment.
We understand there are many issues and concerns for those who have experienced a cancer diagnosis. If you are a cancer survivor, we hope that you will consider participating in the LADDER (Life After Diagnosis and Descriptors of Experience and Responses) study that is focused on Kentucky survivors. The study will assess the overall health, quality of life, and experiences of participants. The data collected will be useful for others diagnosed with the disease and can hopefully help them not feel so alone in the fight to beat cancer. The LADDER study is one of the few studies exclusively focused on these issues in Kentucky.
This study will lay the foundation to explore additional relationships of social factors and individual behaviors across many cancer types as well as barriers and outcomes that Kentucky cancer survivors experience.