Wisconsin Department of Surgery members engage in remarkable research that yields many impactful publications every month. We’re highlighting several of these publications monthly to showcase the diversity of research in the department; see selections from January 2026 below. The complete list of publications by month with links to full articles is available on our Recent Publications page.
January 2026
Epigenetic regulation of higher-order chromatin structure (HOCS) and its implication in human diseases.
Ladel L, Sailo B, Das P, Lin ES, Tan WY, Chhoda A, Tang H, Ang-Olson O, He L, John N, Kratz JD, Sharma A, Ahuja N.
Cancers (Basel). 2026 Jan 31;18(3):483. doi: 10.3390/cancers18030483.
PMID: 41681953; PMCID: PMC12897372.
“I have no idea why I am here”: A mixed methods analysis to characterize barriers to referral and surgical treatment in disadvantaged patients with primary hyperparathyroidism.
Smith ER, Chiu AS.
Surgery. 2026 Jan;189:109785. doi: 10.1016/j.surg.2025.109785. Epub 2025 Oct 28.
PMID: 41152115.
Identifying barriers and motivators to increase surgical clinical trial participation for older veterans.
Cher BAY, Lunardi N, Thornton M, Hitzeman A, Baker J, Macdonald C, Skinner CS, Brown CJ, Mai D, Marten EL, Makris K, Heredia MLM, Berger M, Cullum CM, Lee SC, Pham TH, Balentine CJ.
J Am Geriatr Soc. 2026 Jan;74(1):161-168. doi: 10.1111/jgs.70218. Epub 2025 Nov 26.
PMID: 41294297.
Novel electronic health record-based data commons for pancreatic cancer.
Ahmed KS, Marcinak CT, Ali MM, Issaka SM, Yan Y, McMahan G, Callaci T, LoConte NK, Shiefelbein A, Weber S, Afshar M, Churpek MM, Mathew J, Zafar SN.
JCO Clin Cancer Inform. 2026 Jan;10:e2400265. doi: 10.1200/CCI-24-00265. Epub 2026 Jan 9.
PMID: 41512230; PMCID: PMC12795310.