Head and Neck Scientists

Dr Alok Pathak, MD

The core of Dr. Pathak’s research has been cancers of Head and Neck, particularly those of thyroid and oral cavity.  His research interests span both clinical and translational research (Int J Cancer 2016).  He has established a population based cohort of about 3100 thyroid cancer patients and has followed their oncological outcome of over 35,000 patient-years. His paper on the changing face of thyroid cancer (Cancer Medicine 2013) challenges the premise that the recent rise in thyroid cancer is  just due to the over diagnosis,  as the increase in age standardized incidence was not restricted to smaller thyroid cancers (micro-carcinomas). He questioned the appropriateness of the age threshold of 45 year in risk stratification of thyroid cancer (Endocrine Connections 2013, J Surg Oncol 2016) and proposed 55 year to be a better age cut off for TNM stage grouping (Eur J Surg Oncol 2015). This was followed by a multi-institutional study of around 9484 patients (Thyroid 2016) and subsequent change in the  8th edition of TNM staging for thyroid cancer. Dr. Pathak has developed nomograms for predicting the oncological outcome of thyroid cancer (JCEM 2013), compared it with other existing models (Eur J Surg Oncol 2016) and adapted it to a web based model for individualized oncological risk in thyroid cancer patients (www.survivalcurves.net). His recent papers on increased FDG uptake in Hürthle cell neoplasm highlights the confounding influence of Hürthle cells in causing false positivity on FDG- PET scans (Ann Med Surg 2016, Ann Nuc Med 2016)

 

Contact information

ON2048 - 675 McDermot Avenue
CancerCare Manitoba
Winnipeg Manitoba
Canada R3E 0V9
Phone: (204) 787-1340
Fax:(204) 787-2768

Pubmed Links