Dr. Crane's overarching research goal is to improve the outcomes of children with cancer by enhancing the conduct of precision oncology therapies and early phase clinical trials. This research trajectory was directly informed by her experiences caring for children with cancer and their families, which includes 13 years as a staff nurse and clinical trial research nurse. Her clinical experiences solidified her passion to conduct research that will make a difference in the lives of children with cancer and their families, and that will honor their treatment decisions and support their quality of life.

Dr. Crane's current focus is on developing and testing an innovative interface that will enable children with cancer or their parents to report the child's symptoms during cancer treatment in a more comprehensive, accurate manner, but without undue burden. This novel interface is being built for the Pediatric Patient Reported Outcome Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (Pediatric PRO-CTCAE). The interface may allow the Pediatric PRO-CTCAE to be implemented more broadly, and hence could improve symptom tracking for individual patients. In addition, the interface could facilitate broader surveillance for symptom trends and drug toxicities, not only for clinical trials but also for precision oncology therapies given outside of clinical trials.