News & Events

Robert S. Warren, M.D. and Carlos U. Corvera, M.D. are co-Principal Investigators on a pilot grant funded through the University of California Minority Patient-Derived Xenograft (PDX) Development and Trial Center (UCaMP) to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities collaborative. Comprised of four of the University of California's NCI-designated comprehensive cancer centers: UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center, Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCLA, UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center at UC Irvine, the collaborative is funded by [...]

"In this video, Dr. David Donner, Director of the Surgical Oncology Research Lab at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) discusses the research taking place at the Surgical Oncology Research Laboratory at UCSF, and explains how he uses drug dispensing technology* and patient-derived organoids to enable vital research into liver malignancies, specifically metastatic colorectal cancer that has metastasized into the liver and intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma. Donner also offers an insight into the challenges and future of personalized medicine." 

Eric Nakakura, M.D., Ph.D. has been awarded the 2012 Caring for Carcinoid Foundation-AACR Grant for Carcinoid Tumor and Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumor Research. Dr. Nakakura will receive $250,000 over two years to understand why some patients develop resistance to mTOR inhibiting drugs like everolimus. In particular, he will focus on INK128, a new mTOR inhibitor to see if it can overcome this resistance in mouse models of pancreatic neuroendocrine cancer. He will also evaluate the utility of (68)GA-DOTATOC PET-CT to monitor tumor response to mTOR inhibiting therapies like everolimus and [...]

Then post-graduate student Eric Nakakura, M.D., Ph.D.,  working in the lab of Johns' Hopkins cancer biologist Barry Nelkin, was struck by how the migration of neurological cells to form the developing brain bore an uncanny similarly to the inexorable migration of invasive cells to distant sites in cancer metastasis. Today, the insight of Dr. Nakakura, now an Assistant Professor in Division of General Surgery and Surgical Oncology Program, forged with  postdoctoral fellow Chris Strock, has led to the discovery that an enzyme known as CDK5 and a pathway, RAL, play key roles in the ability of [...]

Felsen, a classic and Indie rock band founded by drummer Andrew Griffin, Luce, Jesse Brewster and Brad Brooks held a benefit concert on Thursday, July 15th at 8 p.m at San Francisco's Red Devil Lounge. Proceeds from this exciting evening of music and dancing supported the research of the UCSF GI Oncology Research Program, led by Robert S. Warren, MD and Alan P. Venook, MD, research seeking to discover new and potentially curative treatments for gastrointestinal (GI) cancers. Andrew Griffin recently appeared on KFOG's Local Scene to promote this benefit concert.  The GI Oncology Program [...]

UCSF researchers, led by Doug Hanahan, Ph.D., have identified collections of tiny molecules known as microRNAs that affect distinct processes critical for cancer progression. The findings help elucidate the important regulatory function of microRNAs in tumor biology.  Eric Nakakura, M.D., Ph.D. (pictured), a surgeon-scientist who treats patients with challenging pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors, was on the team that validated the findings, which were based on an exquisite mouse model of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors. Many of the same altered microRNAs in were found to be present in human [...]

For now, the only possible route to outliving pancreas cancer is complete removal of the tumor via surgery. Surgery for pancreas cancer is long and demanding, and surgeons must be practiced to consistently perform it well. Pancreas cancer surgery outcomes are better at high-volume, major medical centers such as UCSF, where surgeons can specialize - perfecting and maintaining skills and deepening their experience and judgment. UCSF surgeons Kimberly Kirkwood, M.D., and Eric Nakakura, M.D., Ph.D., remove a large number of pancreas tumors each year. They generally achieve excellent outcomes for [...]