Colorectal Surgeon & Section Chief Uma Phatak MD, MS, was recently awarded a one-year, $20,000 grant from the UTMB Core Facility Administrative Council of the Data Management and Analysis Core (DMAC) for Comparative Effectiveness Research on Cancer
in Texas. With this award, Dr. Phatak will use the Texas Cancer Registry to analyze treatment plans for patients with stage III rectal cancer.
From Dr. Phatak:
"Stage III rectal cancer is treated in a multidisciplinary fashion involving surgeons, medical oncologists, and radiation oncologists. A national study found that 10% of these patients do not receive evidence-based treatment. A smaller study of the Kentucky
Cancer Registry found that number to be much higher, about 53%. My hypothesis is that Texas is somewhere in the middle. We will compare survival between patients who get guideline-based treatment and those who do not. We will also determine which
factors, if any, are associated with deviation from guideline-based treatment."
Congratulations, Dr. Phatak!