Rachel Issaka, MD

Dr. Rachel Issaka is a gastroenterologist and clinical researcher focused on decreasing the mortality associated with colorectal cancer, with a special focus on medically underserved populations. Dr. Issaka’s research includes identifying, measuring and recommending new and improved approaches to screening and follow-up both in Seattle and across the U.S.

The roots of Dr. Issaka’s research lie in a tale of two clinics. The first was at Northwestern University’s McGaw Medical Center, a few blocks from Chicago’s glittering “Magnificent Mile” commercial district. The second was at a federally qualified health center on the city’s South Side, several miles and another world away.

Issaka worked at both clinics early in her medical career. She soon noticed a striking difference between the two. Her mostly white, middle- to upper-class patients at Northwestern faithfully followed whatever the doctor ordered. That included getting screened for colorectal cancer, the second-deadliest cancer in the U.S.

But it was different on the South Side. Her mostly African-American and Latino patients there, when encouraged to schedule screening for colorectal cancer, often declined.

Why?

Issaka has never stopped asking why disparities exist and how to achieve health equity in colorectal cancer screening. The questions aren’t academic. Screening can prevent colorectal cancer by detecting and simultaneously removing precancerous polyps, small lesions that over time can grow and become cancerous.

But despite clear evidence that screening for colorectal cancer saves lives, rates aren’t where they should be. The screening goal for the U.S. population, according to the American Cancer Society and National Colorectal Cancer Round Table, is 80 percent. The actual rate is about 63 percent across all populations, with even lower rates among racial minorities and those of lower socioeconomic status.

Closing that gap, Issaka noted, could save 200,000 lives over the next 20 years. And it could lessen the socioeconomic inequalities that linger — or stubbornly grow — in cancer care and mortality.

“Screening is a way to not only prevent disease but reduce racial and economic disparities,” said Issaka, who is on the faculty of the Hutch’s Clinical Research Division and the Hutchinson Institute for Cancer Outcomes Research, which is based in the Public Health Sciences Division. “We need to close that gap so that every citizen can benefit from the advances in cancer care and prevention.”