SUMMARY
Carrie A. Thompson, M.D., is a hematologist who specializes in caring for patients with Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Dr. Thompson also is a translational health outcomes researcher. Her patient-centered research focuses on understanding the short-term and long-term effects of lymphoma treatment in those who survive lymphoma. This includes quality of life, late effects of therapy, cardiovascular disease and the utility of surveillance imaging.
As a disease-specific expert, Dr. Thompson is involved in outcome studies of patients with Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Focus areas
- Lymphoma and cardiovascular disease. Patients with lymphoma are at significant risk of developing cardiovascular disease. That's because many patients receive anthracycline chemotherapy and some are treated with mediastinal radiation. This has been well described in those who survive Hodgkin lymphoma but not in the modern treatment era. There is little data for those who survive non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Dr. Thompson led an effort to collect, validate and describe the development of new cardiovascular disease in a prospective cohort of people who had survived lymphoma. These data are being used in multiple cardio-oncology studies.
- Quality of life and survivors of lymphoma. Dr. Thompson has led multiple studies examining quality of life in those who survive lymphoma and the science of measuring quality of life in this patient population. Dr. Thompson's team demonstrated that the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy — General tool is valid for use in those who survive lymphoma. Using this tool to measure quality of life, Dr. Thompson's team found that baseline quality of life is predictive of overall survival. In patients with aggressive lymphoma, it's also predictive of event-free survival, even after adjustment for known factors related to lymphoma survival. This body of work provided evidence that patient-reported outcomes are as important as other more objective and confirmed International Prognostic Index measures. Quality of life is now being assessed as an important patient-reported outcome in many clinical trials of novel agents in patients with lymphoma.
- Surveillance and survivors of lymphoma. Those who survive aggressive lymphoma are at risk of recurrent disease that is potentially curable. Therefore, routine surveillance CT scans for the first 2 to 5 years after treatment had been considered standard of care. However, in a qualitative study, Dr. Thompson reported that 37% of those who survive lymphoma in the long term met criteria for clinically significant anxiety. This anxiety was associated with surveillance scans — a harmful side effect of imaging that had not been previously reported. She then led a study of patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma — the most common aggressive lymphoma. She found that surveillance scans offered little utility in detecting relapsed disease in two independent cohorts.
Significance to patient care
With improvement in therapies and supportive care, the numbers of people who survive lymphoma continues to grow. As a result, the need for survivorship care is greater than ever. This care includes watching for the return of cancer, screening for second primary cancers, assessing and managing long-term and late effects, promoting health, and coordinating care. Dr. Thompson's research focuses on these important patient-centered outcomes.
Professional highlights
- Co-chair, Survivorship Working Group, Lymphoma Epidemiology of Outcomes Study, 2015-present.
- Program Director of the Year, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, 2024.
- Kern Health Care Delivery Scholar, Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery, Mayo Clinic, 2012-2014.