Associate Director, Translational Research
Research Program: Tumor Biology and Progression
Jay Phillips Professor and Chairman, Department of Surgery

vickers@umn.edu
612-626-1999 - office

Dr. Vicker's clinical profile
(University of Minnesota Physicians Web site)

An accomplished surgeon with an active research program focused on pancreatic cancer, Dr. Vickers is a nationally renowned leader in pancreatic cancer research. His research interests include gene therapy for treating pancreatobiliary tumors and the role of growth factors and receptors in pancreatic cancer. He is the co-principal investigator on a $4.5 million Pancreatic Cancer Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) P20 grant from the National Cancer Institute.

Dr. Vickers joined the University of Minnesota in July 2006 as the Jay Phillips Professor and Chairman of the Department of Surgery. Prior to moving to Minnesota, Dr. Vickers had been a member of the faculty at the University of Alabama at Birmingham since 1994, advancing to professor in its Department of Surgery and chief of its Gastrointestinal Surgery Section. He received the John H. Blue Chair in Surgery and was a senior scientist in the University of Alabama at Birmingham Comprehensive Cancer Center. He is the immediate past president of the Society of Black Academic Surgeons and a member of the American Surgical Association. At Johns Hopkins University, he earned his B.A. in 1982 and his M.D. in 1986; completed his residency in 1993; and then served as an instructor and surgical oncology fellow.

Research Interests

• Gene therapy as an application in the treatment of pancreatobiliary tumors
• The role of growth factors and receptors (FGF, EGFR) in the oncogenesis of pancreatic cancer.
• The implications of FAS expressions and Tamoxifen in the growth and treatment of cholangiocarcinoma.
• Assessment of clinical outcomes in the surgical treatment of pancreatobiliary tumors.
• The role of death receptors in the treatment of pancreatic cancer.

Selected Publications

Arnoletti JP, Buchsbaum DJ, Huang Z, Hawkins AE, Kraus MH, Vickers SM. Mechanisms of resistance to erbitux (anti-epidermal growth factor receptor) combination therapy in pancreatic adenocarcinoma cells. J Gastrointest Surg. 2004;8:960-969.

Jhala N, Vickers SM, Argani P, McDonald J. Regulators of apoptosis in cholangiocarcinoma. Arch Pathol Lab Med. 2005;129:481-486.

Wan M, Huang J, Jhala NC, Tytler EM, Yang L, Vickers SM, Tang Y, Lu C, Wang N, Cao X. SCF(beta-TrCP1) controls Smad4 protein stability in pancreatic cancer cells. Am J Pathol. 2005;166:1379-1392.

Tekant Y, Davydova J, Ramirez PJ. et al. Oncolytic adenoviral therapy in gallbladder cancer. Surgery. 2005;137:327-335.

Tempero MA, Behrman S, Ben-Josef E, Benson AB 3rd, Cameron JL, Casper ES, Hoffman JP, Karl RC, Kim P, Koh WJ, Kuvshinoff BW 2nd, Melvin WS, Muscarella P 2nd, Sasson AR, Shibata S, Shrieve DC, Talamonti MS, Tyler DS, Vickers SM, Warren RS, Willett C, Wolff RA; National Comprehensive Cancer Network. Pancreatic adenocarcinoma: Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology. J Natl Compr Canc Netw. 2005;3:598-626.

Blanquicett C, Buchsbaum DJ, Saif MW, Eloubeidi M, Vickers SM, Chhieng DC, Carpenter MD, Sellers JC, Russo S, Diasio RB, Johnson MR. Antitumor efficacy of capecitabine and celecoxib in irradiated and lead shielded, contralateral human BxPC-3 pancreatic cancer xenografts: Clinical implications of abscopal effects in a metastatic model. Clin Cancer Res. 2005;11:8773-8781.

Steg A, Wang W, Blanquicett C, Grunda JM, Eltoum IA, Wang K, Buchsbaum DJ, Vickers SM, Russo S, Diasio RB, Frost AR, LoBuglio AF, Grizzle WE, Johnson MR. Multiple gene expression analyses in paraffin-embedded tissues by taqman low density array: Application to hedgehog and Wnt pathway analysis in ovarian endometrioid adenocarcinoma. J Mol Diagn. 2006;8:76-78.

Eloubeidi MA, Desmond RA, Wilcox CM, Wilson RJ, Manchikalapati P, Fouad MM, Eltoum I, Vickers SM. Prognostic factors for survival in pancreatic cancer: a population-based study. Am J Surg. 2006;192:322-329.

Jhala N, Jhala D, Vickers SM, Eltoum I, Batra SK, Manne U, Eloubeidi M, Jones JJ, Grizzle WE. Biomarkers in Diagnosis of pancreatic carcinoma in fine-needle aspirates. Am J Clin Pathol. 2006;126:572-579.

DeRosier LC, Huang ZQ, Sellers JC, Buchsbaum DJ, Vickers SM. Treatment with gemcitabine and TRA-8 anti-death receptor-5 mAb reduces pancreatic adenocarcinoma cell viability in vitro and growth in vivo. J Gastrointest Surg. 2006;10:1291-1300.