The bulk of my research interest within urologic oncology is currently in the field of renal cell carcinoma, specifically we are working in collaboration with the pathology department both with Drs. David Grignon and Muhammed Idrees looking specifically at the different intrinsic capsule properties between various renal cell carcinoma histologies. We initially looked at a series of 100 renal cell cancers in four different types of renal cell cancer studying and analyzing the completeness and some of the other additional intrinsic properties of the tumor capsule trying to better understand the role of the capsule in the overall biology of renal cell cancer. We are also currently expanding this investigation looking at an additional 200-300 tumors in clear cell and papillary renal cell cancer across various tumor stages to see how the role of the tumor pseudo capsule may change as the kidney cancer evolves across various stages of aggressiveness and complexity. Additionally, we are doing extensive work looking at the differences in various techniques for renal partial nephrectomy for renal tumors looking specifically at standard healthy margin partial nephrectomies comparing this with enucleoresection or a very, very narrow margin between the tumor capsule and the renal parenchyma. We hope to set this up to either a Phase 2 or a Phase 3 trial within the next year looking at these different surgical techniques. In the field of urologic oncology and radiology, I have collaborated with Dr. Ashish Patel and the radiology department at IU and Methodist trying to determine more predictive ways of determining renal cell histology using CT imaging to better understand the histology prior to surgical intervention for renal cell cancer. We currently have a manuscript published and another manuscript submitted in this area. I have also extended out into the field of urothelial cancer, specifically upper tract urothelial cancer and we are studying the role of segmental ureterectomy or total ureterectomy for patients with isolated tumors of the ureter comparing this with our nephroureterectomy patient population looking at outcomes and recurrence rates. The goal is to continue my research in prostate cancer, renal cell carcinoma, and bladder cancer and to continue to develop future protocols studying the above topics of interest.
M.D. - Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI 2002
