April 5, 2010 | An annual event at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) brought together health care professionals March 19-20 from across Arkansas.

The 13th Annual Charles William Rasco, III Symposium on Colorectal Cancer & Gastrointestinal Malignancies welcomed 110 participants for its daylong Friday session and 65 for its half-day Saturday session. All areas of the state were represented by physicians, nurses, researchers and others desiring to learn the latest advances in research and treatment options.

The symposium is held each year at the UAMS Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute. This was the first year that the event included a focus on gastrointestinal malignancies.

The Rasco Symposium was established in honor of the late Charles William Rasco III. A Dewitt, Ark., native, Rasco was diagnosed with colon cancer in September 1991 and died in March 1994 at age 59.

The agenda included presentations from five UAMS faculty members:

• Gastric Cancer
Issam Makhoul, M.D., course director and associate professor of medicine in the UAMS Division of Hematology and Oncology

• Optimizing Screening for Colorectal Cancer in Underserved Populations
Ronda Henry-Tillman, M.D., professor of surgery in the UAMS Department of Surgery

• Radiation Therapy for Rectal Cancer
Jose Penagaricano, M.D., associate professor of radiology in the UAMS Department of Radiation Oncology

• Minimally Invasive Surgery for Rectal Cancer
Jonathan Laryea, M.D., associate professor of surgery in the UAMS Department of Surgery

• Stage II Treatment for Colorectal Cancer
Rang Govindarajan, M.D., associate professor of medicine in the UAMS Division of Hematology and Oncology and director of Clinical Research and Date Management

Five additional speakers from outside organizations rounded out the agenda:

• Chemoprevention of Colorectal Cancer: Who Can Benefit?
Robert Bresalier, M.D., professor of gastroenterology, hepatology and nutrition in the Division of Internal Medicine at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston

• Novel Treatments for Metastatic Colorectal Cancer
Edith P. Mitchell, M.D., professor of Medical Oncology at Jefferson Kimmel Cancer Center in Philadelphia

• Liver/Biliary Cancer
Philip A. Philip, M.D., Ph.D., professor of medicine at Wayne State University School of Medicine and clinical professor of oncology at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit

• Survivorship in Colorectal Cancer
Kevin Stein, Ph.D., director of quality of life research at the American Cancer Society in Atlanta

• Pancreatic Cancer
Andrea Wang-Gillam, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Oncology, Section of Medical Oncology, at Washington University in St. Louis