Pathology Tumorprofiling

Gastrointestinal cancer causes more than 25% of cancer death in the Western world, with death rates of 50% (colorectal cancer) to 80-90% (gastric and esophageal cancer). Once cancer has been diagnosed, standard surgical and medical oncological therapy regimens are followed. For both gastric and colorectal cancer we and others have demonstrated the existence of substantial genomic variation, which correlates to clinical outcome.
Yet, the standard therapy regimens mentioned above largely neglect the existence and relevance of this genomic variation. Research at the VUmc Tumor Profiling Unit focuses on the translational and basic studies aiming to reduce the high death rates from gastrointestinal cancer. This includes

• secondary prevention of gastrointestinal cancer
• improved identification of high risk patients with premalignant lesions of the gastrointestinal tract translating basic mechanisms of disease into diagnostic tools
• optimized therapy selection for gastrointestinal cancer
• improved prediction of response on therapy  translating basic mechanisms of disease into therapeutic tools     
  chromosomal instability in gastrointestinal cancer
• tumor stroma interaction