Erin Bowles, MPH

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“At KPWHRI, we have access to extensive data on cancer care. I'm using the data to learn how to improve the experiences of cancer patients and their families.”

Erin Bowles, MPH

Director, Collaborative Science, Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute

Twitter: @ErinJBowles


 

Biography

Epidemiologist Erin Bowles, MPH, is looking at cancer screening and treatment from many different perspectives. Her research brings new insight into cancer risk factors, diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship, while helping improve cancer care for patients and families.

Erin received an R50 mid-career research award from the National Cancer Institute (NCI). This award is given to cancer researchers who have demonstrated successes and contributions to cancer research as a non-principal investigator. As a key member of 2 large cancer collaborations — the NCI's Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium and the Health Care Systems Cancer Research Network (CRN) — Erin has developed diverse expertise that includes reading mammograms for breast density and using administrative data to understand patterns of care in cancer treatment.

Her current work includes:

  • Collaborating on a multi-site CRN study led by an investigator at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to understand how obesity affects chemotherapy treatment dosing and risks of recurrence and toxicity in women with breast cancer
  • Helping investigators from Kaiser Permanente Northern California and the University of California (UC) San Francisco and UC Davis understand imaging trends in children and pregnant women, and subsequent risks of leukemia associated with ionizing radiation from imaging exams
  • Working with investigators from the NCI, Kaiser Permanente Colorado, and Kaiser Permanente Georgia to study how mammographic breast density, radiation treatment, and tissue biomarkers are associated with second cancers in women with previous breast cancer
  • Collaborating on several studies within the BCSC to understand how disparities and social determinants of health affect breast cancer screening, diagnosis, and surveillance
  • Helping investigators from the University of Wisconsin develop a model to predict thyroid cancer diagnosis and evaluate how health care utilization affects thyroid cancer detection and outcomes
  • Working with teams from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, University of Washington, and Multicare Health System to develop and validate questions about cancer screening for people eligible for breast, colorectal, cervical, and/or lung cancer screening for the National Health Interview Survey.

Erin’s experience working with large observational cohorts and collaborations with numerous study teams over the past 20 years has provided her with expertise in data collection and quality control for many subject areas. She is also a manager of the Collaborative Science Division at KPWHRI, providing leadership, supervision, mentorship, and support to junior faculty.

Research interests and experience

  • Cancer

    Breast cancer; colorectal cancer; multiple myeloma; thyroid cancer; pancreatic cancer; biostatistics; epidemiology; mammography; mammographic breast density; cancer treatment; cancer screening and surveillance; automated data collection; quality of care; medication use; care coordination; administrative data

  • Health Services & Economics

    Access to care; health disparities; health outcomes research; quality of life; measurement of change in health care systems; practice variation

  • Women's Health

    Menopause; hormone replacement therapy (HRT); breast cancer

  • Aging & Geriatrics

    Cognitive health and dementia; biostatistics; epidemiology; medication use; cancer

Recent publications

Bhimani J, O'Connell K, Ergas IJ, Foley M, Gallagher GB, Griggs JJ, Heon N, Kolevska T, Kotsurovskyy Y, Kroenke CH, Laurent CA, Liu R, Nakata KG, Persaud S, Rivera DR, Roh JM, Tabatabai S, Valice E, Bowles EJA, Bandera EV, Kushi LH, Kantor ED. Methodology for Using Real-World Data From Electronic Health Records to Assess Chemotherapy Administration in Women With Breast Cancer.  JCO Clin Cancer Inform. 2024;8:e2300209. doi: 10.1200/CCI.23.00209.  PubMed

Mullooly M, Fan S, Pfeiffer RM, Bowles EA, Duggan MA, Falk RT, Richert-Boe K, Glass AG, Kimes TM, Figueroa JD, Rohan TE, Abubakar M, Gierach GL. Temporal changes in mammographic breast density and breast cancer risk among women with benign breast disease.  Breast Cancer Res. 2024;26(1):52. doi: 10.1186/s13058-024-01764-2.  PubMed

Hubbard RA, Su YR, Bowles EJ, Ichikawa L, Kerlikowske K, Lowry KP, Miglioretti DL, Tosteson ANA, Wernli KJ, Lee JM. Predicting five-year interval second breast cancer risk in women with prior breast cancer. LID - djae063 [pii] LID - 10.1093/jnci/djae063 [doi]  J Natl Cancer Inst. 2024 Mar 11:djae063. doi: 10.1093/jnci/djae063 [Epub ahead of print] PubMed

Kessler LG, Comstock B, Aiello Bowles EJ, Mou J, Nash MG, Bravo P, Fleckenstein LE, Pflugeisen C, Gao H, Winer RL, Ornelas IJ, Smith C, Neslund-Dudas C, Shetty P. Protocol to measure validity and reliability of colorectal, breast, cervical and lung cancer screening questions from the 2021 National Health Interview Survey: Methodology and design. PLoS One.. 2024 Mar 4;19(3):e0297773. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0297773. eCollection 2024. PubMed

Aiello Bowles EJ, Kroenke CH, Chubak J, Bhimani J, O'Connell K, Brandzel S, Valice E, Doud R, Theis MK, Roh JM, Heon N, Persaud S, Griggs JJ, Bandera EV, Kushi LH, Kantor ED. Evaluation of algorithms using automated health plan data to identify breast cancer recurrences. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2023 Dec 13. doi: 10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-23-0782. [Epub ahead of print]. PubMed

Atakpa EC, Buist DSM, Bowles EJA, Cuzick J, Brentnall AR. Development and evaluation of a method to assess breast cancer risk using a longitudinal history of mammographic density: A cohort study. Breast Cancer Res. 2023 Nov 24. doi:10.1186/s13058-023-01744-y. Online ahead of print. PubMed

 

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