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Our Mission

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Image of doctors looking at an XRAY on a TV screen in the OR

Our mission is to deliver high-quality care to patients in the setting of innovative clinical trials for tumors of the foregut. The foregut is a section of the upper gastrointestinal tract that includes the esophagus, stomach, liver, pancreas and bile ducts. Foregut cancers affect approximately 140,000 people per year in the United States. While each of these cancer types is not among the most common cancers, they are the most difficult to treat. Expertise in both diagnosis and treatment is necessary to provide patients with the best possible outcomes. Patients require experts in the fields of surgical oncology, gastroenterology, medical oncology, radiation therapy, nutrition, interventional radiology and more. Members of our team have partnered together in patient care for ten years or more. It is our seamless cooperation and integrated approach to cancer treatment and research that is the greatest benefit to our patients.

Modest progress has been made in the treatment of foregut cancers over the past few decades. One of the many reasons for this is the lack of effective screening tools for tumors arising in the upper gastrointestinal tract. However, many tumors are detected at an advanced stage, for which chemotherapy often provides a benefit for too few patients. To help address the problems facing patients and the physicians who treat them, the NIH Foregut Team includes leaders in cancer treatment and research who conduct studies that focus on new approaches to the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. In addition, this team of specialists also studies and treats patients with conditions that are known to lead to cancer.

About CCR

The Center for Cancer Research (CCR) is the clinical and basic research program of the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Based in Maryland, on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) campus in Bethesda and on the NCI campus in Frederick, CCR is a distinctive community of scientists and clinicians who integrate basic research discovery with the development of novel interventions against cancer. To learn more, visit About CCR.