Research
The Gastric Precancerous Conditions Study
Gastric cancer afflicts 27,000 Americans annually and carries a dismal prognosis. One reason for poor outcomes is late diagnosis, as the majority of gastric cancers in the United States are diagnosed at a relatively advanced stage where curative resection is unlikely. Gastric intestinal metaplasia (GIM) is a precancerous change of the stomach which increases risk for subsequent gastric cancer multiple-fold. The Gastric Precancerous Conditions Study (GAPS) is an observational study with two over-arching objectives: 1) improve the non-invasive identification of patients with GIM, and 2) develop biological markers to predict the subset of GIM which will progress onto gastric cancer.
Co-Principal Investigators: Dr. Robert Huang and Dr. Joo Ha Hwang