News Release

November 28, 2007

Contact: Christopher DeFrancesco, 860-679-3914
e-mail: cdefrancesco@uchc.edu

Focusing on Prevention

Colon Cancer Screening Expert Joins UConn Health Center

FARMINGTON, CONN. – Joseph C. Anderson, M.D., an expert in colon cancer screening and prevention, has joined the University of Connecticut Health Center.

Anderson is a gastroenterologist who is seeing patients in the Health Center’s Colon Cancer Prevention Program and the Division of Gastroenterology.

“We’re using the latest techniques available,” Anderson says. “We’re capturing a lot of the polyps that may be missed by more conventional means. And my research is focused on detecting as many of these precancerous lesions as possible.”

Anderson comes to UConn from the Stony Brook University Medical Center in Stony Brook, N.Y., where he had an active clinical practice and conducted extensive clinical research on colon cancer prevention. Last month at the American College of Gastroenterology’s annual scientific meeting, Anderson presented a study of colonoscopy in female patients demonstrating that obesity and smoking are bigger risk factors than family history.

“With Dr. Anderson’s wealth of research-based clinical experience and today’s most sophisticated imaging tools, we can identify patients at risk for colon cancer, and prevent it before it occurs,” says Carolyn D. Runowicz, director of the Health Center’s Carole and Ray Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center. “His new research findings suggest that by modifying lifestyle, we can reduce the risk of colon cancer.”

Anderson completed his residency training and a gastroenterology fellowship at Stony Brook after earning his doctorate in medicine at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. He is board certified in internal medicine and gastroenterology. His undergraduate degree is a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

Anderson, 44, lives in West Hartford.

To schedule an appointment, call 860-679-7692 or 800-535-6232.

Photo: http://www.uchc.edu/ocomm/images/images_news/anderson.jpg
Caption: Dr. Joseph Anderson, a colon cancer screening and prevention expert, is now seeing patients at the UConn Heath Center.

The University of Connecticut Health Center includes the schools of medicine and dental medicine, the UConn Medical Group, University Dentists, and John Dempsey Hospital, a Solucient Top 100 Hospital® 2006. Founded in 1961, the Health Center pursues a mission of providing outstanding health care education in an environment of exemplary patient care, research and public service. To learn more about the UConn Health Center, visit our website at www.uchc.edu.

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