A study by a team of American lung cancer specialists has said that if oncologists were able to determine if multiple tumors were metastatic or occurred simultaneously, staging of the cancer and treatment plan could be improved with the potential to improve outcomes and quality of care.
The study, Allelotyping for Loss of Heterozygosity (LOH) Multifocal Primary mary Versus Metastatic Cancers, was awarded the Murray Friedman Resident Competition Award by the American College of Surgeons. It was co-authored by American-Indian Shahriyour Andaz, director of thoracic oncology, Svetlana Danovich, surgical resident, Susan Wu, chair of pathology and clinical laboratories, Stewart Fox, director of cardiothoracic surgery, Roxanne Rosario, clinical research coordinator and Carl Ruoff, a fourth year medical student from the School of Medicine at South Nassau.
The goal of the study was to determine if allelotyping could be used to assess for LOH. Allelotyping involved both DNA sequencing for specific cancerous gene mutation detection and LOH of cancer associated markers.
"The study revealed that when the loss of heterozygosity was identical in the tumors they were metastatic. New multifocal primary cancers had discordant LOH, meaning their LOH was not identical," Andaz said.
Andaz is a recipient of the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer's prestigious Outstanding Performance Award.
"Allelotyping for LOH increases the accuracy of diagnosis and improves the outcome of the treatment plan. This makes a tremendous difference in treating cancer as guidelines would suggest palliative therapy for metastatic cancers versus using a more aggressive approach for primary multifocal disease," he said in statement.
This is the fourth consecutive year in which a study including Andaz has earned an award. Andaz specializes in complex chest cancer procedures and surgery.
Image: Shahriyour Andaz
