Ollin Venegas

Alpert Medical School - Brown University · Department of Surgery

Research on the association between obesity-related biomarkers and disease risk has grown over the past 15 years. This chapter reviews the different categories of biomarkers linked to obesity and provides critical insight into the pathophysiologic pathways related to the diseased.

The evidence for a link between obesity and cancer grows every year. The goal of this chapter is to provide an update on the proposed mechanisms as well as other possible influences. In addition, we provide an overview of the correlation between obesity and various cancer types.

This chapter presents new scientific-based knowledge about the role of physical activity in the management and prevention of obesity-related inflammation.

According to recent studies on the trends of BMI worldwide, the prevalence of obesity has doubled in more than 80 countries since 1980. Moreover, nearly every country—excluding parts of sub-Saharan Africa and Asia—has observed an increase in obesity every year since 1975. Worldwide, 10.8% of adult males and 14.8% of adult females have obesity. Over...

Glomus tumors are rare neoplasms that typically occur within the dermis or subcutis of the subungual space. Primary glomus tumors of the thorax are exceedingly uncommon, thus standard-of-care management is lacking. In this report we describe the management of a patient presenting with a symptomatic glomus tumor of the posterior trachea, and provide...

Background: Complete tumor resection is the most important predictor of patient survival with non-small cell lung cancer. Methods for intraoperative margin assessment after lung cancer excision are lacking. This study evaluated near-infrared (NIR) intraoperative imaging with a folate-targeted molecular contrast agent (OTL0038) for the localization...

Background: Pulmonary metastasectomy is widely accepted for many tumor types because it may prolong survival and potentially cure some patients. However, intraoperative localization of pulmonary metastases can be technically challenging. We propose that intraoperative near-infrared (NIR) molecular imaging can be used as an adjunct during disease l...

BACKGROUND Although real-time localization of gliomas has improved with intraoperative image guidance systems, these tools are limited by brain shift, surgical cavity deformation, and expense. OBJECTIVE To propose a novel method to perform near-infrared (NIR) imaging during glioma resections based on preclinical and clinical investigations, in ord...

Non-small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) remains a deadly disease despite aggressive treatment protocols which incorporate chemotherapy, radiation and surgery. These traditional approaches have reached a plateau in therapeutic benefit. There is emerging evidence suggesting that immunotherapy can serve as an alternative treatment modality for NSCLC. Our g...

Near infrared (NIR) molecular imaging is useful to identify tumor margins during surgery; however, the value of this technology has not been evaluated for tumors that have been pre-treated with chemotherapy. We hypothesized that NIR molecular imaging could locate mediastinal tumor margins in a murine model after neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Flank thym...

Surgery is the most effective method to cure patients with solid tumors. New techniques in near-infrared (NIR) cancer imaging are being used to identify surgical margins and residual tumor cells in the wound. Our goal was to determine the optimal time and dose for imaging solid tumors using Indocyanine Green. Syngeneic murine flank tumor models wer...

Surgery is the most effective method to cure patients with solid tumors, and 50% of all cancer patients undergo resection. Local recurrences are due to tumor cells remaining in the wound, thus we explore near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence spectroscopy and imaging to identify residual cancer cells after surgery. Fifteen canines and two human patients...

More than 80,000 people undergo resection of a pulmonary tumor each year, and the only method to determine if the tumor is malignant is histologic analysis. We propose that a targeted molecular contrast agent could bind lung adenocarcinomas, which could be identified using real-time optical imaging at the time of surgery. Fifty patients with a biop...

Background Over 80,000 people undergo pulmonary resection for a lung nodule in the United States each year. Small nodules are frequently missed or difficult to find despite preoperative imaging. We hypothesized that near-infrared (NIR) imaging technology could be used to identify and locate lung nodules during surgery. Methods We enrolled 18 patie...

Introduction Defining tumor from non-tumor tissue is one of the major challenges of cancer surgery. Surgeons depend on visual and tactile clues to select which tissues should be removed from a patient. Recently, we and others have hypothesized near-infrared (NIR) imaging can be used during surgery to differentiate tumors from normal tissue. Method...

Fluorescence guided surgery (FGS) is a developing field of surgical and oncologic research. Practically, FGS has shown useful applications in urologic surgery, benign biliary surgery, colorectal cancer liver metastasis resection, and ovarian cancer debulking. Most notably in in cancer surgery, FGS allows for the clear delineation of cancerous tissu...

Transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta is a potent immunosuppressive cytokine necessary for cancer growth. Animal and human studies have shown that pharmacologic inhibition of TGF-beta slows the growth rate of established tumors and occasionally eradicates them altogether. We observed, paradoxically, that inhibiting TGF-beta before exposing animals...

"Notions of Health and Manhood in a Guatemalan Gym" investigates how sport and fitness factor into considerations of manhood in Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala. Ollin neatly compartmentalizes his research sections and balances text with visual elements. A word cloud, QR code, table, map, and photographs all engage the viewer. Key visual elements: Three...

The University of Pennsylvania anthropology annual undergraduate research conference known as ANTHROFEST brings together undergraduates involved in research across all concentrations in anthropology, as well as faculty and the broader undergraduate and graduate community. Each year, select students present and discuss their original research to the...