“The HiGI clinic perfectly complements my services as an oncology genetic counselor,” says Erin Campbell. “We make many recommendations for medical care and surveillance when we diagnose a cancer or tumor predisposition syndrome, and the HiGI clinic can be the medical ‘home’ that partners with a patient’s existing care team. Patients can rest easy knowing that they benefit from experts who will help monitor them over time.”
explain her history of polyps and impact her cancer risk management. Initial genetic testing results were unclear, prompting research-based testing. After several months of coordinating testing samples for her children, novel technology helped identify the underlying genetic reason for her colon polyps. This enabled further family testing and more personalized risk management. Beginning in 2021, her personalized follow-up includes an annual HiGI
Our goal is simple: we want to provide patients who have an increased hereditary risk for GI- related cancers the appropriate screenings to identify cancer as early as possible when it is more successfully treated and, in some circumstances, prevent cancer altogether.
The clinic also provides patients cutting-edge care through enrollment in research and clinical trials. In 2023, the medical center joined a group of institutions worldwide as a part of the Pancreatic Cancer Early Detection (PRECEDE) Consortium. The PRECEDE is an international, multi-institutional collaborative group of experts working to improve survival for patients with pancreatic cancer. Through this collaboration and data-sharing platform, researchers are making strides in early detection, surveillance, risk modeling and prevention for those at risk for pancreatic cancer. PRECEDE’s goal is to increase the pancreatic cancer five-year survival rate to 50 percent in the next 10 years. While the clinic was recently formalized, the concept of a high-risk gastrointestinal service has been in place for several years as a collaboration between Oncology Genetics and Surgical Oncology. An example of this comes from 2019, when the oncology genetic counseling clinic worked with a 61-year-old female
consultation, thyroid ultrasound, and multidisciplinary follow-up with gastroenterology and dermatology.
In the emerging era of personalized medicine, specialized high-risk surveillance is a growing need as we continue to identify people who have a hereditary predisposition to gastrointestinal and other cancers. The High Risk Gastrointestinal Surveillance Clinic now provides an evidence-based, multidisciplinary service to meet the needs of our region. As the area’s only academic medical center, we strive to provide the highest quality and most up-to-date care. Our goal is simple: We want to provide patients who have an increased hereditary risk for gastrointestinal cancers cancers the appropriate screenings to identify cancer as early as possible when it is more successfully treated and, in some circumstances, prevent cancer altogether. To refer patients to the clinic, please call (HIGI) 865-305- 4444. Patients may need genetic testing prior to enrollment in this clinic. For genetic counseling and testing, please refer to the University Genetics Oncology Clinic by calling 865-305-4726 (GRAM).
patient to identify a potential underlying genetic predisposition for the multitude of colon polyps identified over numerous colonoscopies.
The patient’s gastroenterologist sent her for a genetic consultation to determine whether genetics could
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