Grantee: Kathryn L. Taylor

Kathryn L. Taylor

Kathryn L. Taylor, Ph.D.

Behavioral Scientist
TCRB PAST FEATURED GRANTEE
Organization:
  • Georgetown University Medical Center - Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center

Current Title
Professor, Department of Oncology, Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, Georgetown University Medical Center

Describe your scientific identity.
I am a behavioral scientist and have conducted research on the behavioral and psychological aspects of prostate cancer screening and treatment, and lung cancer screening. More recently, my work has focused on developing smoking cessation methods in the settings of lung cancer screening, cancer treatment, and cancer survivorship.

What are your research interests?
My interests began in cancer screening, which included a collaboration with the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian (PLCO) Cancer Screening Trial, and subsequently with the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST). Combined with my clinical interest in tobacco cessation, this led to developing and evaluating cessation interventions for smokers at high risk of developing tobacco-related comorbidities in the lung screening setting. Further, we have received NCI funding as part of the Cancer Center Cessation Initiative (C3I) program to develop a clinical tobacco treatment program for cancer patients who are undergoing or have completed treatment.

What is the significance of your current research project?
My current research project is part of the NCI's Smoking Cessation at Lung Examination (SCALE) collaborative group of nine intervention trials. Through this collaboration, we will pool data to assess several cross-project aims, and we will contribute data to a lung CISNET model to project the long-term morbidity and mortality outcomes when lung cancer screening is combined with smoking cessation treatment. The SCALE collaboration has the potential to have a substantial public health impact by providing data to address scalability efforts by lung cancer screening centers, insurers, and policymakers.

What motivated you to work in tobacco control research?
As a behavioral scientist in the field of cancer prevention and control, it is very exciting to have the opportunity to test cessation interventions in a setting with the potential to reach thousands of older adults who have struggled with smoking their entire lives.

Describe something that had a profound influence on your program of research or scientific interests (an "ah-ha!" moment).
The "ah-ha" moment for me is seeing the sense of accomplishment, joy, and relief experienced by patients who stop smoking, which provides me with renewed motivation to work on interventions with the potential to have a public health impact beyond the individual patient. Developing and testing cessation interventions in the lung cancer screening setting and in the cancer treatment setting provides needed assistance to people who have struggled with smoking for many years, as well as the potential for understanding the level of treatment intensity that is required for large-scale implementation in these settings.

Selected training, awards, and honors:

  • Weiner, L. (Principal Investigator), Taylor, K. (Program Leader), for the Georgetown Lombardi Smoking Treatment and Recovery (STAR) Program. Georgetown University Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center Support Grant, 3P30CA051008-24S1.


As a behavioral scientist in the field of cancer prevention and control, it is very exciting to have the opportunity to test cessation interventions in a setting with the potential to reach thousands of older adults who have struggled with smoking their entire lives.”