Valerie Crabtree, PhD

The importance of sleep cannot be overstated. Especially for youth and young adults with cancer, sleep disturbances, daytime sleepiness and fatigue pose a significant burden that impacts daily life. My research focuses on understanding the symptoms of daytime sleepiness and fatigue and working to develop interventions to improve quality of sleep and life for these patients.

My research is focused across multiple conditions in youth and young adults as I work to better identify the symptoms and impact of sleepiness across these populations. My goal is to develop evidence-based interventions that alleviate the significant burden daytime sleepiness and fatigue can cause patients and survivors of childhood cancer.

Throughout my clinical experience and research, I’ve witnessed the significant burden daytime sleepiness brings to children and adolescents with brain tumors. A portion of my current clinical research focuses on identifying daytime sleepiness in pediatric patients receiving treatment for brain tumors and in survivors. Beyond identification of these symptoms, I am collaborating with researchers within St. Jude to evaluate pharmacological and non-pharmacological alertness interventions in pediatric patients and young adults with craniopharyngioma.

Outside of brain tumors, I am the co-principal investigator on a multi-site study, NLPHLPRO: Quality of Life in NLPHL Patients, whose goal is to identify symptoms and symptom burden in patients with this rare subtype of Hodgkin lymphoma.

Beyond the walls of St. Jude, I am the co-chair of the Paediatric Psycho-Oncology Network of the International Society of Paediatric Oncology (SIOP). I also was a co-founder of a special interest group within the International Psycho-Oncology Society dedicated to the sleep needs of youth with cancer. Our work led to the publication of a call to action regarding the need to evaluate sleep and circadian rhythms in the pediatric oncology patient population.

All of my clinical research efforts aim to improve quality of sleep, and life, for children receiving treatment for cancer and those who have moved into the survivorship phase