Clinical Research

Dr. López is the Principal Investigator of several breast and ovarian cancer clinical trials primarily focusing on quality of life care and novel treatments for these malignancies.

Health Care Disparities

Dr. López has a long-standing interest in reducing disparities in the access to health care services and in reducing disparities to the quality of health care that is experienced by many poor, underserved and minority populations. Dr. López is involved with the following projects that seek to reduce these disparities:

American Cancer Society Research Scholar Grant

Dr. López is the Principal Investigator for a Research Scholar Grant entitled, “Examining Barriers to Minority Participation in Cancer Clinical Trials.” This grant, funded for a period of four years, seeks to determine whether the beliefs of ethnically distinct populations affect the accrual of Latino/Hispanic participants to cancer clinical trials.

Arizona Telemedicine Program

Dr. López is Medical Director of the Arizona Telemedicine Program (ATP), established in 1996 to increase access to specialty care for underserved population, including ethnic minorities in the state of Arizona.  In addition to providing clinical care, ATP provides clinical education to rural health care providers.

Access and Utilization of Telemedicine Health Service

In order to better understand and address the needs of Arizona's diverse population, the ATP is conducting a 2-year community-based intervention evaluation study that will provide a profile of telemedicine service utilization by different ethnic populations in order to broaden our understanding of the role of culture in the access and utilization of telemedicine health services.

Telecolposcopy

Telecolposcopy involves the use of telemedicine technology to assess the cervix from a distance. Several pilot studies were undertaken to examine the efficacy and diagnostic accuracy of telecolposcopy in a tertiary and general primary care women's health clinic. Outcomes from the tertiary clinic reveal diagnostic accuracy of telecolposcopy to be consistent with in-person colposcopy.

Bone marrow transplantation (BMT) requires hospitalization for up to 100 days.  Due to the prolonged nature of this intervention, BMT patients experience social isolation that may be ameliorated by the implementation of a tele-home health care monitor during the in-patient stay. Adult and pediatric patients will be randomized to the tele-home health monitor or usual care. Participants randomized to the tele-home health monitor will have a monitor placed in their hospital room.  The other camera will be placed in the patient's home. 

Supportive Care-Physical Activity Dr. Lopez's research interests include understanding what, if any, role physical activity has in supporting the physical and emotional recovery of cancer patients. Patients who are survivors of three different types of cancer have participated in or will participate in research to determine the role of physical activity in their recovery.

Although the benefits of physical activity are widely held, actual studies among cancer patients have been limited. Dr. López conducted a pilot study with breast cancer patients to determine if physical activity benefited the quality of life of these patients. Study findings did suggest a positive trend in quality of life for structured, group-led, internally directed physical activity. Similar studies are being developed for colon cancer and ovarian cancer survivors.

Lopez AM, Wallace L, Dorr RT, Koff M, Hersh EM, Alberts DS. Topical DMSO treatment for pegylated liposomal doxorubicin-induced palmar-plantar erthrodysesthesia. Cancer Chemother Pharmacol 44:303-306, 1999.

Lopez AM, Anemia in Native Americans. In Native American Health Care: Topics in Epidemiology, Pathogenesis, Diagnosis and Therapy among Native Americans. Galloway J, Alpert J, eds., 1998.

• David Alberts, M.D.: chemoprevention of skin cancer.
• Ronald S. Weinstein, M.D.: Arizona Telemedicine Program.
• Tamsen Bassford, M.D.: Women's Health Initiative.
• Shauna Shapiro, M.A.: stress reduction for women with breast cancer.