Charlems Alvarez Jimenez, PhD
Developing a Radiopathomic Signature for Detailed Characterization of Response to Neoadjuvant Therapy in Rectal Cancers
Abstract
Almost all of the 40000+ patients diagnosed with rectal cancer annually receive neoadjuvant therapy (NAC) to reduce tumor burden followed by surgical excision of the rectum. Although up to 27% achieve pathologic complete response (pCR) on the post-surgical specimen, they are still subjected to an invasive surgical procedure that is associated with quality-of-life issues. However, there are no reliable or accurate clinically established markers indicative of treatment response in rectal cancer beyond histological findings on surgically excised rectal specimens. I propose to develop a novel radiopathomic signature which will integrate computational analysis of digitized biopsy images together with quantitative characterization of corresponding MRI scans, toward capturing, integrating, and predicting treatment response phenotypes in rectal cancers; which can be clinically translated in the for future to enable precision medicine in rectal cancers.
I am grateful to receive the PhRMA Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship toward my translational research on novel AI-based patho-radiological markers of response in rectal cancers, a solution that bridges modalities and disciplines for maximal clinical impact.
