Medicine Grand Rounds

“Beyond Wakanda Forever: How the Intersection of Diet and Genes Contribute to the Rise of Early Onset Colon Cancer”
Juanita L. Merchant, MD, PhD

Dr. Merchant is a Regents Professor, the chief of the Division of Gastroenterology & Hepatology and a professor of medicine at the UArizona College of Medicine – Tucson. She is also the UArizona Cancer Center’s associate director for basic sciences and an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine Council. Dr. Merchant earned a doctorate in cell biology and a medical degree in internal medicine from the Yale School of Medicine in 1984. She completed her residency training in internal medicine and a clinical/research fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital, and a clinical fellowship in gastroenterology at the University of California, Los Angeles. She was recruited to Tucson in July 2018 from the University of Michigan, where she held a faculty position since 1991. A renowned physician-scientist, her research focuses on molecular mechanisms underlying normal and pre-neoplastic epithelial cell growth in the luminal gastrointestinal tract and how chronic inflammatory processes and bacterial colonization leads to mucosal alterations in the luminal GI tract that set the stage for gastric and colorectal cancers.

Department of Medicine Grand Rounds

Medicine Grand Rounds are held in Room 5403, on the fifth floor of the College of Medicine – Tucson. To view Medicine Grand Rounds remotely, see this live weblink: https://streaming.biocom.arizona.edu/streaming/. To view it after the fact, click on "Archive" at the top of this same link's webpage and, from the dropdown menu under "Category," select "Department of Medicine" and click "Search" to find the event you're seeking.

Accreditation Statement: The University of Arizona College of Medicine - Tucson is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

The University of Arizona College of Medicine - Tucson designates this live activity for a maximum of 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Disclosure Statement: All Faculty, CME Planning Committee Members, and the CME Office Reviewers have disclosed that they have no financial relationships with ineligible companies that would constitute a conflict of interest concerning this CME activity.

Learning Objectives:

• To discuss the epidemiology of early onset colorectal cancer
• To review what is known regarding the genomic basis for early onset colorectal cancer
• To test the impact of diet on early onset colorectal cancer