GASTROINTESTINAL CANCER PROGRAMThe Gastrointestinal (Gl) Cancer Program was one of the original programs in Jefferson's Kimmel CancerCenter. It comprises sixteen cancer center faculty who represent eight departments within the School ofMedicine (Anatomy, Cell Biology, and Pathology; Cancer Biology; Family Medicine; Internal Medicine;Medical Oncology; Radiology; and Pharmacology And Experimental Therapeutics; Surgery;) and theChristiana Care Health System (Helen F. Graham Cancer Center). Faculty hold appointments in fivegraduate programs in the School of Medicine (Cell Biology; Biochemistry; Genetics; Immunology; MolecularPharmacology). Their work is supported by 4.4 million in peer-reviewed funding (3.7 million from NCI). In thelast funding period, program members had 401 publications of which 5% are intra-programmmatic and 17%are inter-programmatic. The overarching goal of this multidisciplinary program is to define the fundamentalmechanisms underlying Gl malignancies so that they may be translated into diagnostic and therapeuticinnovations in managing cancer in patients and populations. Program members pursue parallel effortsorganized vertically along organ-based disease processes and horizontally from discovery throughtranslation and clinical development, to application. Members employ common and collaborativeexperimental paradigms with the goals of (1) defining previously unappreciated molecular, genetic, andepigenetic mechanisms underlying organ-based tumorigenesis, (2) translating defined mechanism-basedcomponents into novel in vitro and in vivo diagnostic tools that will enable early detection, prognosis,prediction, risk-stratification, and prevention in Gl malignancies, (3) exploiting novel mechanisms to definemolecularly targeted therapeutic approaches for cancer prevention, treatment, and control, (4) advancingnovel discoveries from program member laboratories into development as clinical trials, and (5) ultimatelyadvancing diagnostic and therapeutic modalities which have been successful in clinical development intoevidence-based practice for cancer prevention and control across populations. Members are interactive andcohesive. Under the direction of the program leader and co-leader, members coordinate planning, newresearch directions, and interactions with other research programs in the cancer center. Over the past 6years, the faculty have gained momentum and built their reputation, reflecting remarkable innovation indisease diagnosis and management.
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