Janice Withycombe

Site Principal Investigator,  Duke Cancer Project

Dr. Janice Withycombe, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at Emory University’s Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing and a researcher at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Aflac Cancer Center. Before coming to Emory, she earned a PhD in Nursing at the University of Arizona in Tucson, a master’s degree in Nursing from the University of South Carolina, and a bachelor's degree in Nursing from Clemson University.

​

Dr. Withycombe’s career has been dedicated to working with children with cancer, with her research focusing on symptom identification and management and the interaction of physical activity and patient reported symptoms during and after cancer therapy. She believes that the child’s voice is an important voice during treatment and has worked with a team of international researchers to develop an instrument that captures patient reported adverse events during therapy, in children and adolescents. She is on the editorial board for the Journal of Pediatric Oncology Nursing and serves as an active member of the Children’s Oncology Group (COG). Within COG’s nursing discipline, she leads a Patient Reported Outcome (PRO) working group which advocates for the use of PROs in pediatric oncology clinical trials. 

​

As part of the Duke University PEPR program, Dr. Withycombe is brings expertise and experience in pediatric oncology research, including quantitative and qualitative methodology, instrument development, and project oversight. She has prior experience conducting physical activity research using pedometers and will work with Drs. Reeve and Hinds on the proposed studies in the cancer cohort.