Colorectal cancer (CRC), also known as bowel cancer, colon cancer, or rectal cancer, is the development of cancer from the colon or rectum. Signs and symptoms may include blood in the stool, a change in bowel movements, weight loss, and fatigue. Most colorectal cancers are due to old age and lifestyle factors, with only a small number of cases due to underlying genetic disorders. Risk factors include diet, obesity, smoking, and lack of physical activity. Dietary factors that increase the risk include red meat, processed meat, and alcohol. Another risk factor is inflammatory bowel disease, which includes Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. Some of the inherited genetic disorders that can cause colorectal cancer include familial adenomatous polyposis and hereditary non-polyposis colon cancer; however, these represent less than 5% of cases. It typically starts as a benign tumor, often in the form of a polyp, which over time becomes cancerous.
Fluorouracil, sold under the brand name Adrucil among others, is a cytotoxic chemotherapy medication used to treat cancer. By intravenous injection it is used for treatment of colorectal cancer, oesophageal cancer, stomach cancer, pancreatic cancer, breast cancer, and cervical cancer. As a cream it is used for actinic keratosis, basal cell carcinoma, and skin warts.
NYU Grossman School of Medicine is a medical school of New York University, a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1841 and is one of two medical schools of the university, with the other being the Long Island School of Medicine. NYU Grossman School of Medicine is part of NYU Langone Health, named after Kenneth Langone, the investment banker and financial backer of The Home Depot.
Yale New Haven Hospital (YNHH) is a 1,541-bed hospital located in New Haven, Connecticut. It is owned and operated by the Yale New Haven Health System. YNHH includes the 168-bed Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale New Haven, the 201-bed Yale New Haven Children's Hospital, and the 76-bed Yale New Haven Psychiatric Hospital, making it one of the largest hospitals in the world and the largest in Connecticut. It is the primary teaching hospital for the Yale School of Medicine and Yale School of Nursing.
Bert Vogelstein is director of the Ludwig Center, Clayton Professor of Oncology and Pathology and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at The Johns Hopkins Medical School and Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center. A pioneer in the field of cancer genomics, his studies on colorectal cancers revealed that they result from the sequential accumulation of mutations in oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes. These studies now form the paradigm for modern cancer research and provided the basis for the notion of the somatic evolution of cancer.
National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) is an alliance of 33 cancer centers in the United States, most of which are designated by the National Cancer Institute as comprehensive cancer centers. It is a non-profit organization with offices in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania. John W. Sweetenham, MD, FRCP, FACP, FASCO, from UT Southwestern Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center, is chairman of the NCCN Board of Directors. It publishes the peer-reviewed medical journal Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network.
Yale Cancer Center (YCC) was founded in 1974 as a result of an act of Congress in 1971, which declared the nation's "war on cancer". It is one of a network of 54 Comprehensive Cancer Centers designated by the National Cancer Institute (NCI).Currently directed by Dr. Eric Winer, the Cancer Center brings together the resources of the Yale School of Medicine (YSM), Yale New Haven Hospital (YNHH), and the Yale School of Public Health (YSPH).
Wafik El-Deiry is an American physician and cancer researcher who is the Associate Dean for Oncologic Sciences at the Warren Alpert Medical School, Brown University, Director of the Cancer Center at Brown University, and the Director of the Joint Program in Cancer Biology at Brown University and its affiliated hospitals. He was previously deputy director of Translational Research at Fox Chase Cancer Center, where he was also co-Leader of the Molecular Therapeutics Program.
Eric P. Winer is a medical oncologist and clinical researcher specializing in breast cancer. He is director of Yale Cancer Center and physician-in-chief of Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale New Haven Health, effective February 1, 2022. He also is Deputy Dean for Cancer Programs at the Yale School of Medicine. From 1997 to 2021, he was the Chief of the Breast Oncology Program at Dana–Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Massachusetts. Beginning in 2013, he held a range of institutional roles at Dana-Farber, including Chief of Clinical Development, the Thompson Chair in Breast Cancer Research and Director of the Dana-Farber/Harvard SPORE in Breast Cancer. He also served as a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He was president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2022-2023 and became Chair of the Board in mid-June 2023. His career has been focused on breast cancer treatment and research.
Shuji Ogino is a molecular pathological epidemiologist, pathologist, and epidemiologist. He is currently Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He is also Chief of Program in MPE Molecular Pathological Epidemiology at Brigham and Women's Hospital, and an associate member of Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. He has been known for his work on establishing a new discipline, molecular pathological epidemiology, which represents an interdisciplinary science of molecular pathology and epidemiology.
Nita Ahuja is a surgeon and the Chair of the Department of Surgery at Yale School of Medicine and Surgeon-in-Chief of Surgery at Yale New Haven Hospital. She is the first woman ever to serve as Chair of Surgery in Yale in its >200 year history. Before taking this position she was the first woman ever to be the Chief of Surgical Oncology at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, USA. Ahuja researches in the field of epigenetics and is a passionate advocate of clinician scientist. She also served as the director of Sarcoma and peritoneal surface malignancy program. She is a surgeon-scientist and her research has been cited more than 11,000 times in scientific literature.
Julie Ann Sosa, MD, MA, FACS, is professor and chair of the Department of Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and holds the Leon Goldman, MD, Distinguished Professorship in Surgery. She currently serves as the Treasurer of the American Thyroid Association and Editor-in-Chief of the World Journal of Surgery.
Pamela Lyn Kunz is an American oncologist. She is the leader of the Gastrointestinal Cancers Program at Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer Hospital and director of GI Medical Oncology within the Section of Medical Oncology. She was formerly the director of the Stanford Neuroendocrine Tumor Program before leaving, in part due to gender harassment.
Roy S. Herbst is an American oncologist who is the Ensign Professor of Medicine, Professor of Pharmacology, Chief of Medical Oncology, and Associate Director for Translational Research at Yale Cancer Center and Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut.
Mark Richard Cullen is a physician, scholar, and population health scientist known for his work in occupational medicine. As a professor at Yale and later Stanford University, his research focused on the social, environmental, behavioral and bio-medical determinants of morbidity and mortality in adults, with special emphasis on the role of workplace’in such matters.
Alberto Bardelli is an Italian geneticist and cancer researcher, expert in the field of precision medicine. He is a full professor of histology at the Department of Oncology, University of Turin and Scientific Director of IFOM, the AIRC Institute of Molecular Oncology.
Lisa C. Richardson is an American physician who is the Director of CDC Division of Cancer Prevention and Control. She is responsible for the Colorectal Cancer Control Program, the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program, the National Comprehensive Cancer Control Program, and the National Program of Cancer Registries.
Joel E. Smilow is an American philanthropist and former CEO of Playtex.
Monica Bertagnolli is an American surgical oncologist and the 16th director of the National Cancer Institute. Previously, she worked at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Dana–Farber Cancer Institute and was the Richard E. Wilson Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School. She has advocated for inclusion of rural communities in clinical studies and served as Chair of the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology until her appointment to lead NCI. Bertagnolli specializes in the treatment of tumors from gastrointestinal diseases and soft tissue sarcomas. She is the former President of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and was elected Fellow of the National Academy of Medicine in 2021. In 2023, President Biden nominated Bertagnolli to serve as the director of the National Institutes of Health. If confirmed, she would be the second woman director of the NIH.
Kimmie Ng is a physician at Dana–Farber Cancer Institute who is known for her work on colorectal cancer in young patients.
