We have learned that we can prevent colon cancer by taking aspirin. However because of the significant side effects such as gastric ulcer, bleeding complications and kidney problems, aspirin is not recommended for the public to prevent colon cancer.

In an effort to prevent colon cancer but avoid the side effects of aspirin, COX-2 inhibitors such as Celebrex® (celecoxib) was developed and tested to see if they could prevent colon cancer without the side effects of aspirin. Unfortunately, we have witnessed that high doses of Celebrex can cause heart attacks which put a significant hold on the development of these drugs as chemopreventative agents. Read the rest of this entry »

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. Read the rest of this entry »

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. Read the rest of this entry »