MD, AGAF, FASPEN
Vice Chief of Staff, City of Hope Chicago
We always put patients in charge of their care. That's the model at City of Hope. Our job as physicians and caregivers is to provide patients with all the information about different options of treatment and encourage them to choose what’s best for them.
A graduate of the University of Mumbai, India, Dr. Pankaj Vashi completed a residency program in internal medicine at Michigan State University and a fellowship in gastroenterology at the University of Michigan. Two years after joining City of Hope in 1992, he started the first nutrition and metabolic support program at our Chicago hospital in Zion, Illinois.
Over the next 20 years, he was instrumental in developing robust gastroenterology and nutrition and metabolic support programs in City of Hope Atlanta, Chicago and Phoenix. Most of Dr. Vashi’s early research focused on the field of nutritional evaluation and early detection of malnutrition in oncology patients using subjective global assessment and bioelectrical impedance phase angle analysis. Today, he serves as Vice Chief of Staff and Medical Director of Gastroenterology/Nutrition & Metabolic Support at City of Hope Chicago.
Dr. Vashi offers patients a number of minimally invasive techniques to diagnose and treat tumors and help reduce cancer-related symptoms. He combines diagnostic tests and state-of-the-art technologies with non-surgical techniques, such as colonoscopy to examine the inner lining of the colon and rectum, endoscopic mucosal resection to remove abnormal tissue. He also uses a wide range of tools to treat esophageal, pancreatic, bile duct and colorectal cancers.
Over the past decade, Dr. Vashi has presented his work at multiple Clinical Nutrition Week meetings in oral and poster presentations. He has also participated in symposiums and round-table sessions.
He has a special interest in the role of vitamin D in different cancer types. Some of this work has been presented at the Society of Integrated Oncology and published in peer-reviewed journals. Studies on the impact of nutritional interventions on quality of life and better outcomes in advanced pancreatic cancer patients have recently been presented at international meetings and published in peer-review journals.
Besides being a fellow of the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (FASPEN) and American Gastroenterological Association (AGAF), he is also a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE). Dr. Vashi has pioneered the field of Gastrointestinal Oncology and is an active member of a Special Interest Group committee with ASGE. He is well respected in the field of nutrition in oncology.
Dr. Vashi served on the Scientific Advisory Board of Home Enteral and Parenteral Nutrition for over 12 years and is on the editorial board for Nutrition Journal, Scientific World Journal and Advances in Epidemiology. He is an active contributor to the Becker’s weekly review in Gastroenterology and is well published in the field of Oncologic Nutrition and Gastroenterology. He is also on the abstract review board for Clinical Nutrition Week, the largest Annual International Nutrition Conference.