Research Summary

Dr. Sorbarikor Piawah is a gastrointestinal oncologist with a particular interest in colorectal cancer. She also treats patients with sarcoma, a group of rare cancers that affect the bones and connective tissues.

Piawah has a background in public health research, particularly in health care disparities among racial and ethnic minorities and low-income patients with cancer. Her current research is focused on understanding the roles that the gut microbiome (the population of microorganisms living in the intestinal tract), diet and lifestyle play in disparities among those with colorectal cancer and on designing therapies that target these factors.

Piawah earned her medical degree at Harvard Medical School and a master of public health degree at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She completed a residency in internal medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, one of Harvard's teaching hospitals. She completed a fellowship in hematology and oncology at UCSF.

Piawah belongs to the American Society of Clinical Oncology. She has received awards for her research from the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine and UCSF Center for Aging in Diverse Communities.

In her free time, Piawah enjoys painting and learning to garden.

Education

07/2019 - Fellowship, Hematology/Oncology, UCSF
06/2017 - Residency in Internal Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital,Harvard Medical School
MD, 05/2014 - Medicine, Harvard Medical School
MPH, 05/2014 - Quantitative Methods, Harvard School of Public Health
BS, 05/2009 - Molecular, Cellular, Developmental Biology, Yale University

Honors & Awards

  • 2020 Dean’s Diversity Fund Watson Scholar, UCSF
  • 2014 Harvard Medical School Presidential Scholars Public Service Initiative Scholarship
  • 2009 Bachelor of Science, Molecular Cellular and Developmental Biology, Distinction in Major, Yale University
  • 2009 Yale African American Cultural Center Honors, Magna Cum Laude, Yale University
  • 2009 Yale African American Cultural Center Academic Achievement Award, Yale University

Selected Publications

  1. Piawah S, Kyaw TS, Trepka K, Stewart AL, Mora RV, Stanfield D, Levine K, Van Blarigan EL, Venook A, Turnbaugh PJ, Nguyen T, Atreya CE. Associations between the Gut Microbiota, Race, and Ethnicity of Patients with Colorectal Cancer: A Pilot and Feasibility Study. Cancers (Basel). 2023 Sep 13; 15(18).  View on PubMed
  2. Kyaw TS, Upadhyay V, Tolstykh I, Van Loon K, Laffan A, Stanfield D, Gempis D, Kenfield SA, Chan JM, Piawah S, Atreya CE, Ng K, Venook A, Kidder W, Turnbaugh PJ, Van Blarigan EL. Variety of Fruit and Vegetables and Alcohol Intake are Associated with Gut Microbial Species and Gene Abundance in Colorectal Cancer Survivors. Am J Clin Nutr. 2023 09; 118(3):518-529.  View on PubMed
  3. Keenan BP, Sibley A, Zhang L, Westring AF, Velazquez AI, Bank EM, Bergsland EK, Boreta L, Conroy P, Daras M, Hermiston M, Hsu G, Paris PL, Piawah S, Sinha S, Sosa JA, Tsang M, Venook AP, Wong M, Yom SS, Van Loon K. Evaluation of Culture Conducive to Academic Success by Gender at a Comprehensive Cancer Center. Oncologist. 2024 Mar 04; 29(3):e351-e359.  View on PubMed
  4. Chanda L. Williams, Sorbarikor Piawah, Chloe Atreya, Dalila Stanfield, Kendall Levine, Adrienne Yang. Abstract B133: Understanding the barriers to and attitudes toward integrative oncology for African Americans with cancer. Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention. 2023 Jan 1; 32(1_Supplement):b133-b133.  View on PubMed
  5. Kenfield SA, Philip EJ, Phillips SM, Meyerhardt JA, Chan JM, Atreya CE, Kim MO, Harris Q, Steiding P, Macaire G, McCullough ML, Piawah S, Johnson WY, Kurttila FA, Lewis WL, Pesmen C, Watson Y, Van Blarigan EL. Optimizing intervention tools to improve nutrition and physical activity for colorectal cancer survivors (Tools To Be Fit): Study protocol of a randomized factorial experiment. Contemp Clin Trials. 2022 12; 123:107009.  View on PubMed
  6. Greenberg AL, Tolstykh IV, Van Loon K, Laffan A, Stanfield D, Steiding P, Kenfield SA, Chan JM, Atreya CE, Piawah S, Kidder W, Venook AP, Van Blarigan EL, Varma MG. Association between adherence to the American Cancer Society Nutrition and Physical Activity Guidelines and stool frequency among colon cancer survivors: a cohort study. J Cancer Surviv. 2023 06; 17(3):836-847.  View on PubMed
  7. Andrea Grace Bocobo, Renee Wang, Spencer Behr, Julia C. Carnevale, Pelin Cinar, Eric Andrew Collisson, Lawrence Fong, Bridget P Keenan, Wesley Allen Kidder, Andrew H. Ko, Kanti Pallav Kolli, Megan Kennedy, Angela Laffan, Sorbarikor Piawah, Marin Pollak, Gabriel Schwartz, Julia Whitman, Li Zhang, Katherine Van Loon, Chloe Evelyn Atreya. Phase II study of pembrolizumab plus capecitabine and bevacizumab in microsatellite stable (MSS) metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). Journal of Clinical Oncology. 2022 Jun 1; 40(16_suppl):3565-3565.  View on PubMed
  8. Piawah S, Walker EJ, Van Blarigan EL, Atreya CE. The Gut Microbiome in Colorectal Cancer. Hematol Oncol Clin North Am. 2022 06; 36(3):491-506.  View on PubMed
  9. Lipsyc-Sharf M, Zhang S, Ou FS, Ma C, McCleary NJ, Niedzwiecki D, Chang IW, Lenz HJ, Blanke CD, Piawah S, Van Loon K, Bainter TM, Venook AP, Mayer RJ, Fuchs CS, Innocenti F, Nixon AB, Goldberg R, O'Reilly EM, Meyerhardt JA, Ng K. Survival in Young-Onset Metastatic Colorectal Cancer: Findings From Cancer and Leukemia Group B (Alliance)/SWOG 80405. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2022 03 08; 114(3):427-435.  View on PubMed
  10. Erica S Tsang, Eric Andrew Collisson, Zhen J. Wang, Sorbarikor Piawah, Taylor Sanchez, Margaret A. Tempero, Andrew H. Ko. Optimizing pancreatic cancer management with next generation imaging and liquid biopsy (CHANGE-PDAC). Journal of Clinical Oncology. 2022 Feb 1; 40(4_suppl):tps640-tps640.  View on PubMed
  11. Van Blarigan EL, Dhruva A, Atreya CE, Kenfield SA, Chan JM, Milloy A, Kim I, Steiding P, Laffan A, Zhang L, Piawah S, Fukuoka Y, Miaskowski C, Hecht FM, Kim MO, Venook AP, Van Loon K. Feasibility and Acceptability of a Physical Activity Tracker and Text Messages to Promote Physical Activity During Chemotherapy for Colorectal Cancer: Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial (Smart Pace II). JMIR Cancer. 2022 Jan 11; 8(1):e31576.  View on PubMed
  12. Tsai FD, Guercio B, Stuver S, Stern R, Peluso MJ, Winkler M, Piawah S, Vallurupalli M, Luskin MR, Braun D, Parent A, Glotzbecker B, Kilbridge KL. Resident-Reported Impact of a Novel Oncology Curriculum for Internal Medicine Residents. J Cancer Educ. 2022 Dec; 37(6):1879-1885.  View on PubMed
  13. Evan Justin Walker, Sorbarikor Piawah, Ann Griffin, Julia C. Carnevale, Pelin Cinar, Eric Andrew Collisson, Margaret A. Tempero, Andrew H. Ko. Investigating tumor molecular profiling as a possible contributor to racial/ethnic disparities in pancreatic cancer. Journal of Clinical Oncology. 2021 May 20; 39(15_suppl):6522-6522.  View on PubMed
  14. Ramezanpour S, Horvai AE, Piawah S, Link TM. Primary osteosarcoma of the parietal bone. Skeletal Radiol. 2021 Aug; 50(8):1729-1733.  View on PubMed
  15. Stewart AL, Nápoles AM, Piawah S, Santoyo-Olsson J, Teresi JA. Guidelines for Evaluating the Feasibility of Recruitment in Pilot Studies of Diverse Populations: An Overlooked but Important Component. Ethn Dis. 2020; 30(Suppl 2):745-754.  View on PubMed
  16. Zavala VA, Bracci PM, Carethers JM, Carvajal-Carmona L, Coggins NB, Cruz-Correa MR, Davis M, de Smith AJ, Dutil J, Figueiredo JC, Fox R, Graves KD, Gomez SL, Llera A, Neuhausen SL, Newman L, Nguyen T, Palmer JR, Palmer NR, Pérez-Stable EJ, Piawah S, Rodriquez EJ, Sanabria-Salas MC, Schmit SL, Serrano-Gomez SJ, Stern MC, Weitzel J, Yang JJ, Zabaleta J, Ziv E, Fejerman L. Cancer health disparities in racial/ethnic minorities in the United States. Br J Cancer. 2021 01; 124(2):315-332.  View on PubMed
  17. Midhun Malla, Lucas J. Huebner, Sorbarikor Piawah, Heinz-Josef Lenz, Charles David Blanke, Jeffrey A. Meyerhardt, Eileen Mary O'Reilly, Qian Shi, Alan P. Venook, Richard M. Goldberg. Rural and urban disparities based on zip code of residence: Analyses of 834 and 2,159 patients in NCCTG N9741 and CALGB 80405 (Alliance) trials respectively. Journal of Clinical Oncology. 2020 May 20; 38(15_suppl):e16076-e16076.  View on PubMed
  18. Piawah S, Venook AP. Targeted therapy for colorectal cancer metastases: A review of current methods of molecularly targeted therapy and the use of tumor biomarkers in the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer. Cancer. 2019 Dec 01; 125(23):4139-4147.  View on PubMed
  19. Piawah S, Hyland C, Umetsu SE, Esserman LJ, Rugo HS, Chien AJ. A case report of vanishing bile duct syndrome after exposure to pexidartinib (PLX3397) and paclitaxel. NPJ Breast Cancer. 2019; 5:17.  View on PubMed
  20. Pories SE, Piawah S, Abel GA, Mullangi S, Doyle J, Katz JT. What is the Role of the Arts in Medical Education and Patient Care? A Survey-based Qualitative Study. J Med Humanit. 2018 Dec; 39(4):431-445.  View on PubMed

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