My main area of research includes colorectal cancer screening and evaluating new technologies in colonoscopy for improving the detection of colorectal neoplasia. Colorectal cancer is an important health problem in the US with more than 150,000 cases diagnosed every year. Colonoscopy has been at the forefront of screening for this malignancy. However, colonoscopy has been fraught with many problems and hence the need to improve the current techniques. We have evaluated new technologies like high definition colonoscopy, narrow band imaging, cap assisted colonoscopy and third eye retroscope for improving the detection of colorectal neoplasia. We are also actively evaluating narrow band imaging for the prediction of polyp histology real time during colonoscopy that has the potential of changing the current paradigm of sending all polyps for histopathology. We are also conducting clinical studies in Endoscopic Ultrasonography (EUS) aimed to improve the yield and efficiency of EUS guided fine needle aspiration.
I am currently working on the following research topics:
The major area of my research interest is pancreatic cancer. An estimated 44,000 people were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the U.S., and over 37,000 died from the disease in 2010. It is a poorly understood cancer that is often fatal. It has the worst prognosis of any know solid tumor. Unfortunately this has not changed in the last forty years. Symptoms such as abdominal pain and weight loss arise in the late stages of the disease and often preclude surgery. When tested, up to 80% of pancreatic cancer patients have glucose intolerance. Most of the diabetes seen in pancreatic cancer patients is due to the cancer. This is unique form of diabetes is called Pancreatic cancer associated diabetes (PacDM). It is unique in that this diabetes continues to worsen despite the dramatic weight loss seen in pancreatic cancer. Interestingly this diabetes precedes the cancer well before the onset of any other symptoms. We are now devising a prospective mechanism to identify such individual in an effort to detect early cancer. In addition our lab is involved in process of identifying and validating novel biomarkers for early pancreatic cancer, variables associated with poor response to chemotherapy, cancer chemoprevention and role of cancer stem cells in disease progression. In addition I also have a strong interest in issues related to colon cancer screening and polyposis syndromes.
Hepatitis C virus – please see my lab page for more information.
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