Team Highlights

Dr. Belcher and her team are continuing their work through an R01 grant, recently funded by the National Cancer Institute. This study is characterizing oral anticancer medication adherence phases, and aims to identify multi-level factors that increase risk for poor adherence and resulting poor health outcomes in patients with multiple myeloma, chronic myeloid leukemia, and chronic lymphocytic leukemia. 

Undergraduate Lexie Synder was recognized at the Undergraduate Research Mentorship Program Cord Event on April 24, 2025. Students who are involved in the program for four or more terms receive cords to wear during their graduation. 

"Undergraduate students at all levels are eligible to participate in URMP and their assignments are based on their mentor’s work. The goal of URMP is to introduce students to research methods and to engage them in faculty-led projects and scholarship. Participants are also eligible to attend local and national conferences supported by the School of Nursing." 

Lexie was given her cord by her mentor, Dr. Belcher. 

In April 2025, PhD students Abigail Lustyik and Emily He attended the Oncology Nursing Society's 50th annual Congress in Denver, Colorado. The conference aims to support professional development in the oncology nursing profession, discuss advancements in the field, and describe solutions from research and clinical practice. 

Both Lustyik and He presented poster presentations of their research abstracts. Lustyik (top) presented her poster on her abstract titled, "Exploring the Symptom Experience of Patients Taking Oral Anticancer Medications for Multiple Myeloma: A Qualitative, Descriptive Study," which can be found here on page 43. He (bottom) presented her poster on her abstract titled, "Do Health Information Seeking Behaviors Among Patients Taking Oral Anticancer Medication for Multiple Myeloma Differ by Socioeconomic Status? An Exploratory, Qualitative, Descriptive Study," which can be found here on page 33. 

Dr. Sarah Belcher presented during the UPMC Hillman Basic and Translational Research Seminar Series on Tuesday, April 29th, 2025. Dr. Belcher received the 2024 Emerging Scholar Award for Meritorious Population Science Cancer Research at the 36th Annual UPMC Hillman Cancer Center Scientific Retreat and recently presented her research as part of the 2025 series of Senior Vice Chancellor Research Seminars. Dr. Belcher’s clinical program of cancer research focuses on understanding and improving health outcomes among patients with cancer. Her current research examines multi-level predictors and outcomes of different phases of adherence to  oral anticancer medications among patients with hematologic malignancies. 

Twelve Pitt faculty members have recently been selected to present their research for the 2025 Senior Vice Chancellor’s Research Seminar Series. 

Sarah Belcher, assistant professor of health and community systems, School of Nursing, presented research on equitable cancer medication adherence on Feb. 21. 

In relation to her presentation, an article entitled "Bedside to Bench: The Many Ways of Being a Nurse" was published highlighting Belcher and the motivation behind her work. 

In November 2024, Dr. Belcher attended the ESPACOMP Conference in Naples, Italy. ESPACOMP is a non-profit organization primarily concerned with medication adherence research. Dr. Belcher presented IMPACT Study qualitative findings from their exploration of patient perspectives of healthcare system factors affecting medication adherence among patients with multiple myeloma. A comprehensive list of the poster presentation abstracts can be found here.

On November 8, 2024, Pittsburgh's School of Nursing held their first annual Research Day to highlight the plethora of diverse research being conducted within the SON. Both Sarah Belcher and Abigail Lustyik presented poster presentations for their research abstracts. Belcher (top) presented her poster on her abstract titled, "Patterns and Predictors of Electronically Monitored Oral Anticancer Medication Adherence Among Patients with Multiple Myeloma," informing on data from the IMPACT Study. Lustyik (bottom) presented her poster on her abstract titled, "Higher neighborhood deprivation is associated with higher symptom severity and burden ​among survivors of multiple primary cancers." Lustyik's abstract was a secondary analysis of LAMP Study data.

Nominated by her colleagues, Drs. Marci Nilsen and Teresa Thomas, Dr. Belcher was awarded the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center 2024 Emerging Scholar Award for meritorious Population Science Cancer Research.

On September 6th, 2024, Dr. Belcher served as a Grand Rounds presenter for Rush University's Gerontology and Palliative Care Department. Her presentation highlighted the IMPACT Study findings. 

The National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) is an annual student conference dedicated to promoting undergraduate research. Hosted in Long Beach, California for the 2024 conference, two of our students, Abigail Lustyik (left) and Alexandria Snyder (right), presented their research abstracts. Lustyik presented her oral presentation on her abstract titled, "Higher neighborhood deprivation is associated with higher symptom severity and burden ​among survivors of multiple primary cancers." This was a secondary analysis of the LAMP Study data, which continues to inform the work of Dr. Belcher and her team. Snyder presented her oral presentation on her abstract titled, "Higher depression is associated with lower self-reported adherence among patients with multiple myeloma taking oral anticancer medications," which was a secondary analysis of IMPACT Study data. 

Lustyik (left) and Snyder (right)

In collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau- Eta Chapter, hosted Sigma Scholar's Night, a celebration and dissemination of faculty and student-led research presentations. Both Abigail Lustyik and Alexandria Snyder presented poster presentations for their research abstracts. Lustyik (top) presented her poster on her abstract titled, "Higher neighborhood deprivation is associated with higher symptom severity and burden ​among survivors of multiple primary cancers." Snyder (bottom) presented her poster on her abstract titled, "Higher depression is associated with lower self-reported adherence among patients with multiple myeloma taking oral anticancer medications." Lustyik's abstract was a secondary analysis of LAMP Study data and Snyder's abstract was a secondary analysis of IMPACT Study data.

From 2022-2023, MD student Chelsea Green was mentored by Dr. Belcher and Dr. Kimberly Curseen at Emory University as part of the Gleitsman Student Diversity in Palliative Care Program to create a secondary analysis of COPE Study data. This prestigious program provided mentored palliative care research experience to first-year medical students from backgrounds underrepresented in medicine. 

"This award was created to address the lack of racial diversity in the field of palliative care and provide an opportunity for students attending medical schools without a palliative specialization program to learn more about the field." In 2022, medical student Chelsea Green, mentored by Dr. Belcher, received the Gleitsman award. "Her project focused on patient-provider communication and financial hardship in the context of serious illness." Her full interview for this award can be found here.

Dr. Belcher was selected by the Oncology Nursing Society as the nurse lead on a national interdisciplinary panel that developed the 2022 ONS Guidelines to Support Patient Adherence to Oral Anticancer medications. See this article to learn about the work of the panel to produce the guidelines, and this publication to view the final guidelines. 

An additional paper was published that resulted from the panel work, reporting on domains of structured oral anticancer medication programs in the published literature.

In January 2022, the National Cancer Institute cited Dr. Belcher's postdoctoral paper, which was research conducted and published alongside co-PI, Dr. Kate Yeager from Emory University.

Dr. Belcher was chosen to be a part in the inaugural cohort of the Mothers Leading Science (MLS) program at the University of Pittsburgh. Belcher, PhD, RN, OCN, was one of nine faculty members, and the only faculty member from Pitt Nursing, selected for the program that’s geared towards research-intensive faculty in the health sciences, and who identify as mothers of school age and/or young children. For more information on this program, see this article.

In 2021, Dr. Belcher became a recipient of the NIH Loan Repayment Program award, which exists to help support scientific discoveries. 

"The NIH Loan Repayment Programs (LRPs) are a set of programs established by Congress and designed to recruit and retain highly qualified health professionals into biomedical or biobehavioral research careers. The escalating costs of advanced education and training in medicine and clinical specialties are forcing some scientists to abandon their research careers for higher-paying private industry or private practice careers.