Indian doctor in NY bags cancer research fund
By siliconindia   |   Friday, 15 October 2010, 12:40 IST
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New York: Acclaim may come as awards but for Dr. Sanjay Goel, who made India proud, recent honor from the American Society of Clinical Oncology Cancer Foundation, and the $450,000 that goes along with it for research work on cancer means more than an award. Goel , a medical oncologist and researcher at Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, hopes that patients may someday soon get a chance to benefit from the medical research he is doing. He is specifically working to test a drug for treating colorectal cancer, a drug that is not approved for use yet but Goel has high hopes for. Goel also won the Advanced Clinical Research Award for his patient-oriented approach to colorectal cancer research at the 46th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago last summer. He was one of three recipients of the Advanced Clinical Research Award of $450,000 to support original research that is currently not funded, which is presented annually to physicians who have five to 10 years of experience. According to Goel, in colorectal cancer patients 40 percent have been found to have a mutant gene called KRAS, which when present stops the two main available colorectal cancer drugs from working and has spent the last two years trying to figure it out. Goel who received his medical degree from Christian Medical College in Vellore, India came to the United States in 1996 and served his residency in internal medicine at the State University of New York Health Sciences Center. Goel is also board certified in internal medicine, hematology and oncology and plans to use his $450,000 in award money to run clinical trials and do more work on proving the reovirus and Reolysin is a valid option to treating to colorectal cancer and needs to be approved for patient use. Though Goel does treat patients at Montefiore, he said he never envisioned himself running his own private practice because he wants to be able to treat patients but also do research.

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