Dr. Luz Rodríguez

Evolving Colon and Rectal Cancer Screening Guidelines

Dr. Luz Maria Rodríguez is a board-certified general surgeon and a dual fellowship-trained surgical oncologist and colorectal surgeon who serves as a Program Director and Medical Officer in the Gastrointestinal and Other Cancers Research Group in the NCI Division of Cancer Prevention. She is responsible for developing and supporting ongoing early Phase 0-II prevention clinical trials through protocol development, scientific reviews, and strategic planning. The program seeks to fill the research void between preclinical studies and Phase III trials by emphasizing intervention effects on at-risk tissue-intensive collections and invasive biomarker monitoring. She oversees chemoprevention and treatment trials in organ sites such as the liver, pancreas, stomach, and colon that use study agents such as vaccines, simvastatin, atorvastatin, lisinopril, berberine, curcumin, metformin, erlotinib and aspirin. She is part of the Adjudication Cancer Committee of the ASPREE (ASPirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly) study and the Prostate, Breast, Colon Cancers Working group at ASPREE. Prior to joining DCP, Dr. Rodriguez was a translational physician-scientist in the NCI Genetics Branch while at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Her lab studied genome-wide gene expression profiles in colonic mucosa of populations at risk, an expression profiling approach that created a foundation for biomarkers of early colon cancer detection and prevention. She developed a Clinical Cancer Genetics Program devoted to risk surveillance, assessment, genetic testing, counseling, prevention and targeted intervention for individuals at increased risk for specific cancers. These protocols involved testing and identification of biomarkers that might be candidates for intermediate endpoints in treatment and prevention trials. Moreover, her lab was the first to study the genetic profile comparison of right vs. left in Lynch Syndrome patients. Dr. Rodríguez is also a senior staff/faculty surgeon at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUS) and Walter Reed Military Medical Center, for more than 21 years serving domestic, foreign families and dignitaries in GI diseases/cancers, pelvic floor disorders, soft tissue sarcoma and breast disease. She is an Advance Trauma Life Support (ATLS) instructor at USUS, equipping individuals in ATLS globally. She trains medical students, residents and fellows in oncology, surgery, and cancer prevention. She is a consultant nationally and internationally with scientific and clinical groups specially focused on GI diseases with the hope of narrowing the gap in cancer intervention. Dr. Rodríguez is trilingual in Spanish, French and English and serves as an advisor on health disparities in the U.S., Latin America, and Africa.

With The Society of Black Academic Surgeons

A Comprehensive Review of Surgical Disparities in the Vulnerable Communities of the USA: The Black Community - Part II

The Society of Black Academic Surgeons is honored to participate in the International Colorectal Disease Symposium focusing on disparities in the management and outcomes of a host of diseases affecting the African American and Underrepresented minority communities in the United States. This month we will hear from a distinguished panel of experts highlighting Surgical approaches to the problems of peripheral vascular disease, kidney transplantation and obesity.

With The Society of Black Academic Surgeons

A Comprehensive Review of Surgical Disparities in the Vulnerable Communities of the USA: The Black Community - Part I

The Society of Black Academic Surgeons is honored to participate in the International Colorectal Disease Symposium focusing on disparities in the management and outcomes of cancer patients in the Black and underrepresented communities. Importantly, the symposium will review strategies to mitigate disparate outcomes through research, policy and clinical service. A team of renowned researchers will lead a robust discussion regarding the roles of the surgical oncology workforce demographics, breast cancer screening, safety net hospitals, colorectal cancer surgery, and clinical trials in achieving cancer health equity.

With The Society of Black Academic Surgeons

DEI Initiatives in Colorectal Surgery

This program presents the many facets of colorectal surgery as a profession and a surgical specialty. The DEI Committee of the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons was founded in 2020 in the midst of social and medical injustices. Our program today will feature the extensive important work being done by the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons, as well as initiatives on the horizon, to make colorectal surgery a more equitable and just specialty for the medical community and society at large.