Jessica Chubak, PhD, is an epidemiologist who works to improve cancer diagnosis, treatment, control, and survivorship. She contributes to several national collaborations that are finding practical, efficient, effective ways to screen for cancer, especially colorectal cancer. She also studies how common medications affect cancer risk and recurrence. Intrigued by how pets positively affect health, Dr. Chubak is studying animal-assisted activities in clinics and hospitals where children get treated for cancer. Dr. Chubak’s methodological research focuses on the use of administrative and electronic health record data in epidemiologic and health services studies.
Dr. Chubak joined KPWHRI in 2007, bringing expertise in epidemiologic methods, pharmacoepidemiology, and cancer. Awarded a Fulbright graduate student grant, Dr. Chubak pursued her master's degree in bioethics and health law in New Zealand before completing her PhD in Epidemiology at the University of Washington (UW). Dr. Chubak is an affiliate associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the UW School of Public Health, where she enjoys guest-lecturing and getting to work with students.
Epidemiology; colorectal cancer; medication use; survivorship; recurrence; secondary prevention; quality of life; automated data collection; screening; animal-assisted activities; survivorship
Screening
Cancer risk and use of common medications
Chen Y, Wang J, Chubak J, Hubbard RA. Inflation of type I error rates due to differential misclassification in EHR-derived outcomes: empirical illustration using breast cancer recurrence. Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf. 2018 Oct 30. doi: 10.1002/pds.4680. [Epub ahead of print]. PubMed
Kamineni A, Tiro JA, Beaber EF, Silverberg MJ, Wheeler CM, Chao CR, Chubak J, Skinner CS, Corley DA, Kim JJ, Balasubramanian BA, Doria-Rose VP. Cervical cancer screening research in the PROSPR I Consortium: rationale, methods, and baseline findings from a U.S. cohort. Int J Cancer. 2018 Oct 24. doi: 10.1002/ijc.31940. [Epub ahead of print]. PubMed
Selby K, Jensen CD, Lee JK, Doubeni CA, Schottinger JE, Zhao WK, Chubak J, Halm E, Ghai NR, Contreras R, Skinner C, Kamineni A, Levin TR, Corley DA. Influence of Varying Quantitative Fecal Immunochemical Test Positivity Thresholds on Colorectal Cancer Detection: A Community-Based Cohort Study. Ann Intern Med. 2018;169(7):439-447. doi: 10.7326/M18-0244. Epub 2018 Sep 18. PubMed
Chubak J, Yu O, Ziebell RA, Bowles EJA, Sterrett AT, Fujii MM, Boggs JM, Burnett-Hartman AN, Boudreau DM, Chen L, Floyd JS, Ritzwoller DP, Hubbard RA. Risk of colon cancer recurrence in relation to diabetes. Cancer Causes Control. 2018 Sep 22. pii: 10.1007/s10552-018-1083-3. doi: 10.1007/s10552-018-1083-3. [Epub ahead of print]. PubMed
Singal AG, Corley DA, Kamineni A, Garcia M, Zheng Y, Doria-Rose PV, Quinn VP, Jensen CD, Chubak J, Tiro J, Doubeni CA, Ghai NR, Skinner CS, Wernli K, Halm EA. Patterns and predictors of repeat fecal immunochemical and occult blood test screening in four large health care systems in the United States. 2018 May;113(5):746-754. doi: 10.1038/s41395-018-0023-x. Epub 2018 Feb 27. PubMed
Jones SMW, Walker R, Fujii M, Nekhlyudov L, Rabin BA, Chubak J. Financial difficulty, worry about affording care, and benefit finding in long-term survivors of cancer. Psychooncology. 2018 Apr;27(4):1320-1326. doi: 10.1002/pon.4677. Epub 2018 Mar 8. PubMed
Chen L, Chubak J, Boudreau DM, Barlow WE, Weiss NS, Li CI. Diabetes treatments and risks of adverse breast cancer outcomes among early stage breast cancer patients: a SEER-Medicare analysis. Cancer Res. 2017 Nov 1;77(21):6033-6041. doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-17-0687. Epub 2017 Sep 21. PubMed
The findings can help guide colorectal cancer screening decisions later in life.
Understanding emergency department use among adolescent and young adult cancer survivors can help address care gaps.
How KPWHRI is contributing to better cancer screening and better outcomes for patients.