What is New from the Gastrointestinal Cancer Symposium

I am sitting at the Oakland airport waiting for my flight from San Francisco to Los Angeles going home from the Gastrointestinal Cancer Symposium. This is the only GI symposium in the United States which brings together all the experts dealing with patients with GI cancer, including surgeons, radiation oncologists, medical oncologists, gastroenterologists, and scientists.

We all realize that it takes a team to provide the best care, particularly with novel developments in technologies such as virtual colonoscopies, new drugs, new surgical techniques and new insights on cancer risk and prevention strategies. Continue reading…

Posted by Heinz-Josef Lenz, MD on January 20th, 2009
Posted in: From the Desk of Dr. Lenz | No Comments »
Tags: GI Symposium, Understanding Genetics

Avoid Western Diet

The typical Western diet increases the risk of tumor recurrence for patients with colon cancer.

Patients who ate the most red and processed meats, refined grains, fats, and sugars were about three times as likely to die or have their cancers recur as patients who ate these foods the least. While there is no shortage of evidence linking the so-called Western diet to an increased risk for developing colon cancer, the study by the group at Harvard is among the first to examine the impact of such a diet on survival among patients treated for the disease. Continue reading…

Posted by Heinz-Josef Lenz, MD on January 16th, 2009
Posted in: From the Desk of Dr. Lenz | 1 Comment »
Tags: diet, Preventing Colorectal Cancer, recurrence

Clinical Trials: Hope and Future

Last Thursday we saw a 32 year old female with metastatic rectal cancer who had received all the best therapies so far but her oncologist was running out of treatment options.

The patient was not ready to give up and was looking for other options from clinical trials. She contacted our center to get more information on a number of clinical trials. We met with her and her parents to discuss potential treatment possibilities for her. Continue reading…

Posted by Heinz-Josef Lenz, MD on January 14th, 2009
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Tags: clinical trials, Knowing About Clinical Trials

Our Genes Determine the Success of Chemotherapy

I am not only a GI oncologist who sees patients, but I am also running a laboratory. My research tries to understand why some colon cancers respond to chemotherapy and others don’t, and why some colon cancers recur after successful removal by the surgeon.

I am trying to change the way we treat patients with colon or rectal cancer. Over the last 10 years we have identified genetic signatures which help us choose the most effective and least toxic chemotherapy. In my practice every patient with newly diagnosed colon cancer is genetically tested for KRAS and two genes which show whether FOLFOX chemotherapy is more likely to be successful. Continue reading…

Posted by Heinz-Josef Lenz, MD on January 12th, 2009
Posted in: From the Desk of Dr. Lenz | 6 Comments »
Tags: personalized medicine, Understanding Genetics

Evaluate Your Surgeon

When we go to a surgeon, we often don’t ask them how many surgery he has done for the same disease but may be we should.

For colon cancer, there is in fact a specialization fellowship to become a colorectal surgeon. A recent analysis of 17 studies from nine countries has shown that the quality of the surgeon and the surgery is associated with better outcome.

How can you evaluate the surgeon? Continue reading…

Posted by Heinz-Josef Lenz, MD on January 9th, 2009
Posted in: From the Desk of Dr. Lenz | 2 Comments »
Tags: lymph nodes, surgery, Treating Colorectal Cancer