Colorectal cancer affects about 5% of the population, with up to 150,000 new cases per year in the United States alone.
Cancer of the large intestine accounts for 21% of all cancers in the US, ranking second only to lung cancer in mortality in both males and females. It is, however, one of the most potentially curable of gastrointestinal cancers.
Colorectal cancer is preventable if a polyp is removed before it turns into cancer. The best way to prevent colorectal cancer is to get screened by having a colonoscopy. Keep in mind, colorectal cancer is treatable and beatable if it's caught in its early stages.
For more information about lung, prostate, colorectal, and breast cancer, including statistics, diagnosis and treatment, visit these websites:
Our Beneficiary
With your help, we have raised more than $650,000 since 2005 to benefit Johns Hopkins. These funds have been used for a variety of education and outreach initiatives, including: information and emotional support for newly diagnosed colorectal cancer patients; promotion of screening for early diagnosis; salary support for a Health Educator; and a planned survivorship and patient education program. In addition, our efforts have helped to fund research involving molecular genetics of metastatic colorectal cancer as well as clinical outcomes studies of hepatic colorectal metastasis surgery.
In 2009, immixGroup and Johns Hopkins created the immixGroup Foundation Surgical Oncology Fellowship in the Department of Surgery at Johns Hopkins. The fellowship funds post-doctoral research fellows with the potential to become leaders in the field of academic surgical oncology. This two-year program incorporates a year of clinical training followed by a year of cancer research.
immixGroup Foundation Surgical Oncology Fellows
Dr. Aram Demirjian
Dr. Demirjian is the inaugural fellow in the Department of Surgery at Johns Hopkins. This coming year, Dr. Demirjian will continue his fellowship focusing on cancer research and the study of biomarks for colorectal cancer in collaboration with Dr Bert Vogelstein and Dr. Michael Choti. As a part of his study, Dr. Demirjian will examine serum collected from patients for markers that can be used for the early detection of recurrent colorectal cancer.
Dr. Janivette Alsina
Dr. Alsina is the 2010 immixGroup Foundation Fellow. Dr. Alsina arrived at Johns Hopkins in July 2010 from Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. She is currently doing clinical work at The Johns Hopkins Hospital that focuses on a variety of oncologic problems including the detection and management of colon cancer, liver cancer, melanoma, and breast cancer among others.
Dr. Alsina is also working on a clinical project that looks at those factors that influence patient outcomes in hepatocellular carcinoma, the third-leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. In addition, Dr. Alsina will be spending the coming year working in the laboratory of Dr. Steven Leach examining the basic molecular changes that lead to the development of pancreatic cancer.
Funding provided by the immixGroup Foundation for the surgical oncology fellowship is an incredibly important resource which sustains this important educational opportunity for the cancer surgeons of tomorrow—like Drs. Demirjian and Alsina—and the others who will follow in their footsteps.
To learn how you can support our cause, click here.