Events

This Stomach and Pancreatic Cancer Awareness month, join leading oncologists and public health experts from Columbia University and India to learn about how we can understand, diagnose, and prevent gastrointestinal cancers.
Gastric (stomach) cancer ranks as the fifth most common cancer in India and the world, while pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer-related deaths globally. Despite high mortality rates, the survivability from both these cancers is closely tied to early detection and treatment. Knowing the incidence and mortality rates in India and worldwide, what are feasible and cost-effective screening strategies? How can these be implemented during Covid-19 times?
Our distinguished panelists will discuss the importance and challenges of early detection, and explore viable population and individual cancer screening strategies to achieve positive health outcomes for gastrointestinal cancers. This program is part of ‘Screenings that Save: A Seminar Series on Cancer Diagnosis and Prevention’ organized by Columbia Global Centers | Mumbai in collaboration with the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Panelists: 

• Dr. Gulam Manji, Director of Medical Oncology and Translational Research for the Pancreas Center, Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center 
• Dr. Jeanine Genkinger, Associate Professor of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health
• Dr. Vikram Chaudhari, Consultant GI-HPB surgeon, Surgical Oncology, Tata Memorial Center

About the Speakers:

Gulam Manji is an Assistant Professor of Medicine and Director of Medical Oncology & Translational Research for The Pancreas Center at Columbia University Medical Center. Dr. Manji conducts translational research with the overall goal to develop new treatments for cancer. His focus is in gastrointestinal malignancies, particularly pancreas adenocarcinoma, on which he is conducting preclinical combination immunotherapy studies on genetically engineered mice with pancreas cancer in his laboratory at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center. The combination immunotherapy preclinical proposal received the Young Investigator Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology-2015. This work led to an FDA approved clinical trial, which is actively accruing patients with pancreas adenocarcinoma. Dr. Manji's research career in identifying new genes and their implication in disease has led to numerous key publications and an issued patent. He oversees multiple investigator-initiated and sponsored clinical trials at Columbia University.  

Jeanine Genkinger is an Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.  She is a cancer epidemiologist who has been driven to understand how modifiable factors, molecular pathways and related biomarkers may impact cancer risk and progression, particularly for rare but highly fatal cancers (e.g., pancreatic cancer).  Her area of methodological specialty is in nutritional epidemiology, longitudinal design and complex pooled and meta-analytic techniques. Dr. Genkinger has conducted her research in large scale international consortia, namely the Pooling Project of Prospective Studies of Diet and Cancer and the NCI Cohort Consortium, and has conducted research in numerous cohort studies, such as the Breast Cancer Family Registry. Dr. Genkinger was recently awarded the Yusuf Hamied Fellowship to build research collaborations in India around nutrition and prevention of chronic diseases.

Vikram Chaudhari is an Associate Professor and Consultant GI-HPB surgeon in the Department of Surgical Oncology, Tata Memorial Hospital. His focus of clinical and research work has been Gastric and Pancreatic tumors with particular interest and expertise in gastrointestinal- neuro endocrine tumors and robotic and laparoscopic gastrointestinal oncosurgery. A fellow of the Indian Association of Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons, Minimal Access Surgeons of India and Association of Colon and Rectal Surgeons of India, Dr. Chaudhari is the executive committee member of the International Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association, India Chapter. He has written more than 10 book chapters about gastric and pancreatic tumors, delivered numerous presentations on the topic, and has also performed live operative demonstrations in various surgical conferences as a part of operative workshops.