Colorectal cancer (CRC) incidence and mortality have been declining in the U.S. over the last several decades; however, this disease still ranks as the third most common and second most lethal cancer in the United States (US). In contrast to these overall trends, the incidence o…
Colorectal cancer is a preventable disease and an important public health issue with health communication implications. Despite the evidence that adherence to providers’ recommendation of colon cancer screening guidelines decreases incidence and mortality rates, participation in…
The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of colorectal cancer (CRC) with liver metastases on long-term quality of life (QOL) and survivorship experiences, and to explore the relevance of the EORTC QOL questionnaires to this population, using a qualitative approach. Ov…
Crohn's disease (CD) and colorectal cancer (CRC) are major disorders of the intestine. Inflammation in CD often precedes fibrosis and stricture formation, and is linked to increased cancer risk. Hypoxia is a common feature of inflammation and CRC that can severely compromise the…
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) confers a high risk of development of colitis-associated colorectal cancer in patients with extensive colitis. Crypt fission is a mechanism of clonal expansion in the intestinal epithelium. Although fission is rare in the normal colon, many crypt…
The DNA Mismatch repair (MMR) pathway is responsible for the repair of base-base mismatches and insertion/deletion loops, formed during DNA replication. Mutations in MMR genes significantly increase the predisposition to cancer with MMR deficiency estimated to be present in 15-1…
BACKGROUND: Radiation exposure to the abdominal region causes intestinal toxicity and is also capable of inducing colorectal cancers (CRC). Genotype-phenotype studies provide some evidence explaining the variation in familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) patients caused by modifi…
The aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) superfamily is gaining momentum in regard to stem cell and cancer research. However, their regulation and expression in the cancer microenvironment is poorly understood. The aim of this work was to understand the role of selected ALDH isoforms (…
In the present investigation peripheral blood lymphocytes from patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and different cancer states were treated with various agents and compared with lymphocytes from healthy control individuals (HCI) treated in the same way and measured in…
The base excision repair protein, MBD4 (also known as MED1) is known to be transcriptionally coupled to a mismatch repair protein MLH1. To date the significance of this coupling has not been elucidated and the significance of MBD4 within the mismatch repair system and apoptotic …
KRAS (Kirsten rat sarcoma) oncoprotein is mutationally activated in ~40% of colorectal cancers (CRC) and KRAS mutation state is an excellent predictor of the failure of a cancer to respond to conventional chemotherapy or targeted therapy. The colonic epithelium provides a biolog…
Although physician recommendation has been significantly associated with colorectal cancer screening (CRCS), it still does not motivate all patients to get CRCS. Although improved physician recommendation for CRCS has been shown to increase patient CRCS screening, questions rema…
Recent advances in technology have enabled the systematic, genome-wide analysis of cancer genomes, providing greater insight into the genetic basis of cancer development and a deeper understanding of the human genome. The focus of the current work is to identify genomic alterati…
Colorectal cancer is known to be among the most common malignancies globally (Fazeli et al., 2007). Due to the high volume of Central/Middle Eastern Muslim immigration to the United States and the large population in North Texas, a need was recognized for health educators and he…
Although colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer in the United States, 75% of CRC occurs in individuals with no known risk factors. In this dissertation, I explore the importance of ancestral heritage, family history of cancer, BRCA mutations, APC D1822V, APC I13…
The basic goals of my work are to understand and characterize biological pathways that are altered in cancer. In particular, I have been focusing on colorectal cancer. In my work I used various supervised and unsupervised computational methods to analyze high-throughput data suc…
Screening reduced the incidence rate for colorectal cancer (CRC) by 3% annually during 1998-2001; yet screening rates remain low. CRC continues to be the third most commonly diagnosed cancer and the third cause of cancer deaths in the U.S. Studies showed CRC incidence increased …