Elizabeth Arthur

Liz Arthur is an oncology advanced practice nurse and health behavior scientist who is passionate about improving quality of life and access to care for survivors. She has joint appointment in the College of Nursing and The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute. Arthur’s research specializes in cancer survivorship and supportive care in oncology and has three overlapping areas of focus.

Arthurs’ first area of focus is to address women’s sexual health and wellbeing after cancer treatment, which is integral to quality of life in survivorship. Because partner communication is integral to sexual adjustment after treatment, Arthur developed and tested the psychometric performance of the Self-Efficacy to Communicate about Sex and Intimacy (SECSI) scale with 250 women treated for cancer. This work was funded by an Oncology Nursing Society Foundation Dissertation Research Grant ($5,000) and a Sigma Theta Tau Epsilon Chapter Dissertation Grant ($500). The scale had excellent reliability and validity, and is being translated by research groups in Turkey and Poland. Currently, she is collaborating with experts in the field to develop a partner version of the scale. Arthur, co-principal investigator Daniel J. Spakowicz , PhD, and their team have received an Ohio State Comprehensive Cancer Center Intramural Research Award ($176,000, funded by Pelotonia) for her project, “Vaginal Microbiome as a Biomarker of Pelvic Health and Patient-Reported Outcomes in Women Receiving Pelvic Radiation.” This is a 24-month longitudinal study evaluating pelvic health, vaginal microbiome and patient-reported outcomes in women initiating pelvic radiation for gynecologic or gastrointestinal cancer. Based on results of this work, Arthur and team hope to be able to predict which women may suffer more sexual and urinary effects of treatment, and potentially develop treatments based on manipulating the microbiome.

The second area of Arthur’s research focus is on geriatric cancer survivor outcomes and access to care. In collaboration with Jessica Krok-Schoen, PhD, Arthur leads an Ohio State Center for Clinical and Translational Science-funded project ($15,400) to describe older cancer survivors’ experiences and opinions using technology for health and survivorship care. Qualitative data describing the experiences and opinions of older cancer survivors with using various forms with technology (electronic medical record, apps, or wearable health tracking devices) will inform survivorship intervention development. Arthur and Krok-Schoen also have a project, made more critical by contemporary global challenges, entitled “Effects of social isolation on depressive symptoms, health-related quality of life, and survival in older women with breast and gynecologic cancer.” This project involves secondary data analysis of the NCI's Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS) Medicare Health Outcomes Survey (MHOS) dataset, and is funded by the Ohio State CCC Intramural Supportive Care Pilot Research Award Program ($15,000). Finally, Arthur is co-investigator with Jennifer Kue, PhD, (PI) on an important and timely project to assess the feasibility and acceptability of comprehensive cancer care delivery via telehealth, which received College of Nursing seed funding ($6,400).

Arthur’s third research passion is addressing cancer health disparities through community advocacy as a member of Ohio Partners for Cancer Control, founding board member of the Midwest Sex and Gender Minority (SGM) Health Research Consortium, and through her community-engaged health equity research. She convenes a SGM Cancer Health Community Advocacy Board to inform culturally relevant cancer care access, quality and coordination. Arthur’s current work focuses on the experiences of SGM chest/breast cancer survivors with provider communication, decision making and social support. Her qualitative research exploring the perceptions and opinions of survivors, caregivers and providers will inform a multi-level approach to addressing oncology healthcare equity for sex and gender diverse survivors.

Arthur earned her baccalaureate degree in psychology and zoology from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1997 and a master’s degree in physiology from Wright State University in 2000. She then applied her passion for health sciences to nursing, receiving her master’s in 2003. She was awarded Outstanding Graduate Student Awards from both the Sigma Theta Tau, Epsilon Chapter and the College of Nursing Adult Health Nurse Practitioner Program.

Since then, Arthur has practiced in oncology as an advanced practice nurse at Ohio State Comprehensive Cancer Center – James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute in palliative care, acute care medical oncology, advanced practice quality and patient safety, and now provides survivorship care in the James Supportive Care Clinic. She obtained specialty Advanced Oncology Nurse Practitioner certification in 2008 through Oncology Nursing Certification Corporation. In 2011 she was awarded the Nursing Clinical Excellence Award by James Nursing.

In 2018 Arthur obtained her PhD in Nursing. Arthur has served as Associate Editor for the Oncology Nursing Forum journal, Midwest Nursing Research Society Emerging Scholars Network Executive Board, Scientific Network on Female Sexual Health and Cancer newsletter committee, and facilitates the junior faculty peer mentoring group of the Society for Behavioral Medicine Cancer group. She also leads, with two colleagues from Dana Farber and MD Anderson, the nationwide Oncology Nurse Scientist Collaborative. Arthur received the Trainee Research Award from the Scientific Network on Female Sexual Health and Cancer (2017), Distinguished Abstract Award from Midwest Nursing Research Society (2018), and the Junior Faculty Abstract Award from the Multinational Association for Supportive Care in Cancer Survivorship group (2019). Arthur has presented her work nationally and internationally, and has numerous peer-reviewed publications.