LAHORE: With the rapid advancement in medicine, the role of pathologists in the management of patients with colorectal (large intestine) cancer has greatly expanded from traditional analyzers of samples to clinical consultants for gastroenterologists, surgeons, oncologists and medical geneticists.

Addressing a seminar on colorectal cancer here at the University of Health Sciences (UHS) here on Thursday, Prof Dr Muhammad Ilyas from University of Nottingham, UK, said the pathologic analysis provided histologic and molecular information critical to appropriate patient diagnosis, treatment and family counseling.

Prof Ilyas elaborated the significance of biomarkers and ‘6 Ps’ (predisposition, pharmacogenetics, prognosis, profile, prediction and pharmacotherapeutics) in colorectal cancers.

He said the technology had almost reached a point where the whole genome sequencing should be integrated with digital pathology and liquid biopsies.

Globally, colorectal cancer is the third most common type of cancer making up about 10 per cent of all cancers. It is more common in developed countries where more than 65pc cases are found. It is less common in women than men.

Earlier, UHS Vice-Chancellor retired Maj-Gen Prof Muhammad Aslam said the incidence of this disease was increasing and unfortunately the prognosis remained poor for most patients.

“The identification of those patients who are at a high risk of the disease is important in selecting the appropriate treatment,” he added.

The UHS VC further said that despite the continuing use of histopathology as the “gold standard”, the genetic features of colorectal tumours would almost certainly become useful indicators of prognosis and of the most appropriate treatment.

Moot on dental research

The First Annual Conference of Pakistan Association for Dental Research (PADR) will kick off here at the University of Health Sciences (UHS) on Saturday (tomorrow).

The two-day international conference is being organized by UHS Oral Biology Department in collaboration with the Pakistan Association of Orthodontists, Pakistan Dental Association and COMSATS. The theme of the conference is “Translating Research Evidence into Dental Practice”.

Over 500 scholars, researchers and dentists from UK, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan will participate in the conference. The guest speakers include Dr Syed Ali Khurrum, a clinician based at University of Sheffield, UK, Dr Kashif Hafeez from Royal Society of Edinburgh and Dr Sobia Bilal from International Medical University, Malaysia.

The conference will also feature pre-conference and post-conference workshops, 70 oral presentations, 45 poster presentations and exhibition of various technical, clinical and research based-items.

The focal person of the conference is UHS assistant professor of oral biology Dr Sarah Ghafoor. She said that PADR was Pakistan section of International Association of Dental Research which was a leading organization providing platform to dental researchers all over the world since 1920. She hoped that the conference would play a role in promoting, understanding and translating ideas from researcher’s bench to clinical bedside and to public awareness.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2014