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Tito R. Mendoza, PhD, MS, MEd

Present Title & Affiliation

Primary Appointment

Assistant Professor, Department of Symptom Research, Division of Internal Medicine, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX

Bio Statement

I spend most of my time doing collaborative work that utilizes my quantitative background (psychometrics and statistics) and research training to develop and evaluate the measurement properties of patient-reported outcomes assessment tools and to help design and analyze studies with symptoms as primary outcomes.

More recently, I have been involved as an investigator in a consortium (with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Mayo Clinic) funded by the National Cancer Institute to develop and validate a patient-reported outcomes version of the Common Terminology Criteria – Adverse Event (PRO-CTCAE). I co-led the development of the PRO-CTCAE items and I am currently involved in designing the validation study.

Research Interests

My primary research interest is in applying psychometrics to develop and evaluate symptom assessment tools. I was instrumental in the development of single-symptom (Brief Fatigue Inventory, BFI) and multiple-symptom (M. D. Anderson Symptom Inventory, MDASI) assessment tools. My collaboration with clinicians at M. D. Anderson have resulted in the development of several disease-specific and cancer-site-specific modules of the MDASI, including the MDASI-Brain Tumor, the MDASI-Head and Neck, the MDASI-Thyroid, the MDASI-Gastrointestinal Cancer, and the MDASI-Heart Failure, and others. I have provided our international collaborators with the necessary theoretic measurement framework to conduct foreign-language validation of our assessment tools.

An integral aspect of my research is the application of advanced statistical models in understanding symptom outcomes.  I am interested in determining how patient-reported outcome can be use to define and develop responder type analysis.

Office Address

The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center
Department of Symptom Research
1400 Pressler St Unit 1450
Unit Number: 1450
Houston, TX 77030
Room Number: FCT11.5074
Phone: (713) 745-3486
Fax: (713) 745-3475

Education & Training

Degree-Granting Education

1999 University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, PHD, Quantitative Methods
1995 University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, MS, Statistics
1991 University of Toledo, Toledo, OH, MEd, Research and Measurement
1987 University of the Philippines, Los Baños, Philippines, BS, Statistics

Selected Publications

Peer-Reviewed Original Research Articles
1. Wang XS, Shi Q, Lu C, Basch EM, Johnson VE, Mendoza TR, Mobley GM, Cleeland CS. Prognostic value of symptom burden for overall survival in patients receiving chemotherapy for advanced non-small cell lung cancer. Cancer. In Press.
2. Armstrong TS, Gning I, Mendoza TR, Weinberg JS, Gilbert MR, Tortorice ML, Cleeland CS. Clinical utility of the MDASI-BT in patients with brain metastases. J Pain Symptom Manage 3(331-40), 37, 3/2009. PMID: 18676120.
3. Shi Q, Wang XS, Mendoza TR, Pandya KJ, Cleeland CS. Assessing persistent cancer pain: a comparison of current-pain ratings and pain recalled from the past week. J Pain Symptom Manage 37(2):168-74, 2/2009. PMID: 18676116.
4. Park HC, Janjan NA, Mendoza TR, Lin EH, Vadhan-Raj S, Hundal M, Zhang Y, Delclos ME, Crane CH, Das P, Wang XS, Cleeland CS, Krishnan S. Temporal patterns of fatigue predict pathologic response in patients treated with preoperative chemoradiation therapy for rectal cancer. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. e-Pub 2/2009. PMID: 19231100.
5. Mendoza T, Mayne T, Rublee D, Cleeland C. Reliability and validity of a modified Brief Pain Inventory short form in patients with osteoarthritis. Eur J Pain 10(4):353-61, 5/2006. PMID: 16051509.
6. Mendoza TR, Wang XS, Cleeland CS, Morrissey M, Johnson BA, Wendt JK, Huber SL. The rapid assessment of fatigue severity in cancer patients: use of the Brief Fatigue Inventory. Cancer 85(5):1186-96, 3/1999. PMID: 10091805.

Abstracts
1. Mendoza T, Rosenthal D, Wang X, Mobley G, Cleeland C. Measuring the symptom burden of head and neck cancer patients undergoing concurrent chemotherapy and radiation therapy using area under the curve. American Society of Clinical Oncology 2009 Annual Meeting, Orlando FL, May 29 - June 2, 2009. J Clin Oncol 27(15 Suppl) (#6067), 5/2009.

Last updated: 9/15/2009