Catarina Simões Padilla is a PhD candidate at the Netherlands Cancer Institute. In September 2022, she joined the Department of Medical Oncology as a PhD candidate in the group of Winette van der Graaf and Olga Husson, a position she holds jointly with Erasmus MC in Rotterdam.
Her research focuses on health related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients with solid rare cancers. She works on improving how HRQoL is measured in this population and on developing a strategy that allows it to be assessed more meaningfully in both clinical and research practice.
Rare cancers are individually uncommon but collectively affect a large number of patients, whose experiences and needs remain underrepresented in oncology research. Her work aims to give this group a stronger voice by building measurement tools and approaches that capture what quality of life means for them.
Much of this research is carried out through international collaboration. She is an active member of the EORTC Quality of Life Group (QLG) and coordinates the international EORTC QoL Rare Cancer Study. She also works within the EURACAN Network and the Dutch Rare Cancer Platform (DRCP), connecting her research to the wider rare cancer community across Europe and the Netherlands.