Tag Archives: diego-health

New at-risk group identified for gastrointestinal stromal tumors

“Previous journal articles never clearly differentiated GIST from several other tumors, even though they have different biologies,” said Jason Sicklick, MD, assistant professor of surgery and a surgical oncologist at UC San Diego Health System. “This study more clearly identifies at-risk populations in the United States as well as incidence rates, survival trends and risk factors for the disease.” Prior to 2001, GIST-specific histology codes were not used in medical coding, which meant that a variety of tumor types, such as leiomyoma and leiomyosarcoma, spindle cell, myofibroblastic, desmoid and KIT-positive metastatic melanomas were all lumped into one category. Sicklick and his team have used a new generation of precise pathologic diagnostic codes to better define the incidence and distribution of GIST among different patient groups. The research team from UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center found that the overall incidence rate was 6.8 cases per million people and that the rate rose from 2001 to 2011. …

Prostate cancer diagnosis improves with MRI technology — ScienceDaily

An ultrasound machine provides an imperfect view of the prostate, resulting in an under-diagnosis of cancer, said J. Kellogg Parsons, MD, MHS, the UC San Diego Health System urologic oncologist who, along with Christopher Kane, MD, chair of the Department of Urology and Karim Kader, MD, PhD, urologic oncologist, is pioneering the new technology at Moores Cancer Center. “With an ultrasound exam, we are typically unable to see the most suspicious areas of the prostate so we end up sampling different parts of the prostate that statistically speaking are more likely to have cancer,” said Parsons, who is also an associate professor in the Department of Urology at UC San Diego School of Medicine. “The MRI is a game-changer…