Browsing by Author "Karkash, Ahmad"

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    Comparative oncology chemosensitivity assay for personalized medicine using low-coherence digital holography of dynamic light scattering from cancer biopsies
    (Springer Nature, 2024-02-08) Hua, Zhen; Li, Zhe; Lim, Dawith; Ajrouch, Ali; Karkash, Ahmad; Jalal, Shadia; Childress, Michael; Turek, John; Nolte, David; Medicine, School of Medicine
    Nearly half of cancer patients who receive standard-of-care treatments fail to respond to their first-line chemotherapy, demonstrating the pressing need for improved methods to select personalized cancer therapies. Low-coherence digital holography has the potential to fill this need by performing dynamic contrast OCT on living cancer biopsies treated ex vivo with anti-cancer therapeutics. Fluctuation spectroscopy of dynamic light scattering under conditions of holographic phase stability captures ultra-low Doppler frequency shifts down to 10 mHz caused by light scattering from intracellular motions. In the comparative preclinical/clinical trials presented here, a two-species (human and canine) and two-cancer (esophageal carcinoma and B-cell lymphoma) analysis of spectral phenotypes identifies a set of drug response characteristics that span species and cancer type. Spatial heterogeneity across a centimeter-scale patient biopsy sample is assessed by measuring multiple millimeter-scale sub-samples. Improved predictive performance is achieved for chemoresistance profiling by identifying red-shifted sub-samples that may indicate impaired metabolism and removing them from the prediction analysis. These results show potential for using biodynamic imaging for personalized selection of cancer therapy.
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    Delays in Colorectal Cancer Screening for Latino Patients: The Role of Immigrant Healthcare in Stemming the Rising Global Incidence of Colorectal Cancer
    (Elmer Press, 2024) Montalvan-Sanchez, Eleazar E.; Beas, Renato; Karkash, Ahmad; Godoy, Ambar; Norwood, Dalton Argean; Dougherty, Michael; Medicine, School of Medicine
    The significant global burden of colorectal cancer accentuates disparities in access to preventive healthcare in most low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) as well as large sections of underserved populations within high-income countries. The barriers to colorectal cancer screening in economically transitioning Latin America are multiple. At the same time, immigration from these countries to the USA continues to increase. This case highlights the delays in diagnosis experienced by a recent immigrant from a country with no established colorectal cancer screening program, to an immigrant population in the USA with similar poor screening coverage. We discuss common challenges faced by Latinos in their home countries and the USA, as well as strategies that could be implemented to improve screening coverage in US immigrant populations.
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    Evaluating the feasibility and predictive accuracy of biodynamic imaging to platinum-based chemotherapy response in esophageal adenocarcinoma
    (Frontiers Media, 2024-09-30) Ajrouch, Ali; Krempley, Ben; Karkash, Ahmad; Dewitt, John M.; Al-Haddad, Mohammad; Lim, Dawith; Nolte, David; Turek, John; Perkins, Susan M.; Jalal, Shadia I.; Medicine, School of Medicine
    Background: Esophageal cancer management lacks reliable response predictors to chemotherapy. In this study we evaluated the feasibility and accuracy of Biodynamic Imaging (BDI), a technology that employs digital holography as a rapid predictor of chemotherapy sensitivity in locoregional esophageal adenocarcinoma. Methods: Pre-treatment endoscopic pinch biopsies were collected from patients with esophageal adenocarcinoma during standard staging procedures. BDI analyzed the tumor samples and assessed in vitro chemotherapy sensitivity. BDI sensitivity predictions were compared to patients' pathological responses, the gold standard for determining clinical response, in the surgically treated subset (n=18). Result: BDI was feasible with timely tissue acquisition, collection, and processing in all 30 enrolled patients and successful BDI analysis in 28/29 (96%) eligible. BDI accurately predicted chemotherapy response in 13/18 (72.2%) patients using a classifier for complete, marked, and partial/no-response. BDI technology had 100% negative predictive value for complete pathological response hence identifying patients unlikely to respond to treatment. Conclusion: BDI technology can potentially predict patients' response to platinum chemotherapy. Additionally, this technology represents a promising step towards optimizing treatment strategies for esophageal adenocarcinoma patients by pre-emptively identifying non-responders to conventional platinum-based chemotherapy.