• BBPSB Profile

I am a Cellular and Molecular Scientist.

I am a BBPSB Grantee.

Co-Principal Investigator

Linda Janusek, PhD, RN

I am a Research Scientist.

Dr. Mathews leads a research team with co-PI Linda Janusek, PhD, RN that seeks to identify the biological basis for the immune dysfunction that accompanies psychosocial distress. It is the premise of their work that psychosocial distress contributes to cancer recurrence through neuroendocrine activation and dysregulation of immune function. If this premise proves to be true, then reductions in psychosocial distress would be expected to result in a normalization of immune function.

In their current study, Dr. Mathews and Dr. Janusek test this hypothesis by enrolling breast cancer patients into a mindfulness-based stress reduction program and evaluating them in a randomized controlled study from diagnosis through treatment and early survivorship. Psychological, neuroendocrine and immunological variables are assessed to test the scientific underpinnings of psychoneuroimmunology and advance an understanding of mind-body approaches for cancer care.

Results suggest that women who participated in the mindfulness based stress reduction program recovered their natural killer cell function much more rapidly than women who did not. This finding is particularly important in breast cancer, in which cancer cells are known to be responsive to the effects of natural killer cells.

• Featured Grant in Basic Biobehavioral and Psychological Sciences Branch (BBPSB)
• Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction for Psycho-Immune Dysregulation in Cancer
• 5R01CA125455-04


• Program Director of Featured Grant: Paige Green-McDonald