Bio
Dr. Deshka Foster is a dual fellowship-trained surgical oncologist and hepatopancreatobiliary (HPB) surgeon with Stanford Health Care. She is an assistant professor in the Department of Surgery, Division of General Surgery, Section of Surgical Oncology at Stanford University School of Medicine.
Dr. Foster offers advanced, personalized treatment for patients with HPB cancers, including cancers of the pancreas, bile ducts (cholangiocarcinoma), gallbladder, and liver, as well as gastrointestinal (GI) cancers. She also directs the Hepatic Artery Infusion (HAI) Pump program at Stanford.
As a surgeon-scientist, Dr. Foster holds a Ph.D. in Cancer Biology from Stanford University and leads a translational research laboratory, where her interests include pancreatic tumor microenvironment, cancer associated fibroblasts, and solid tumor response to immunotherapy. She and her laboratory team specifically research cells that influence tumor behavior and resistance to treatment (cancer-associated fibroblasts) in bile duct and pancreatic cancers. The Foster laboratory also studies abdominal adhesion fibrosis, which are internal scar tissue bands that form after surgical operations and can cause bowel obstruction and complicate further surgical procedures.
Dr. Foster has published her research in many peer-reviewed journals, including Cancer Cell, Science Translational Medicine, Nature Communications, Science, Cell, PNAS, Cell Reports Medicine, and Annals of Surgical Oncology. She has presented to her colleagues at national and regional meetings, including those of the Society of Surgical Oncology, the American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress, and the Annual Academic Surgical Congress.
Dr. Foster is a member of the American College of Surgeons, the Society of Surgical Oncology, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and the Americas Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association/International Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association. She is also a member of the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons, the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract, and the Association of Women Surgeons. In addition, she is an associate member of the American Association for Cancer Research and a candidate member of the Association for Academic Surgery.
