News & Events

Former professor Thierry Jahan, M.D.,  discussed clinical data from the study, Safety and Efficacy of Listeria in Combination With Chemotherapy as Front-line Treatment for Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma, at the ESMO/IASLC European Congress on Lung Cancer in Geneva in April 2016. This is a Phase Ib trial of CRS-207 in malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM). Dr. Jahan spoke at OncLive, the official Website for the Oncology Specialty Group: Thierry M. Jahan, MD, a clinical professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of California San Francisco Helen Diller Family Comprehensive [...]

Thierry Jahan, M.D. was recently inducted into the Council of Master Clinicians by the UCSF Department of Medicine. Dr. Jahan, Clinical Professor of Medicine and Bonnie J. and Anthony Addario Endowed Chair in Thoracic Oncology at UCSF, is a renowned medical oncologist specializing in the treatment lung cancer, mesothelioma and other thoracic malignancies, as well as soft tissue sarcoma. The Council of Master Clinicians is comprised of a select "group of outstanding physicians with exceptional knowledge, superior teaching and communication skills, and the ability to provide compassionate, [...]

The UCSF Heart and Vascular Center recently opened a new ambulatory care clinic located on the 5th Floor of the ACC Building at 400 Parnassus Ave. in San Francisco. The multidisciplinary clinic offers outpatient care and testing, and an array medical procedures. The new clinic houses eleven UCSF cardiovascular programs, including five from the Department of Surgery, under one roof, programs previously spread out over disparate locations: Adult Cardiothoracic Surgery Vascular & Endovascular Surgery Center for Limb Preservation & Wound Care Heart Transplant Program Lung [...]

Tobias Deuse, M.D., an internationally renowned cardiac surgeon, recently joined the UCSF Department of Surgery Faculty as Associate Professor of Surgery in the Division of Adult Cardiothoracic Surgery. Dr. Deuse has also been appointed Director of Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery. Dr. Deuse has done pioneering work in the development of minimally-invasive techniques for mitral valve repair, demonstrating that excellent success rates can be achieved in mitral valve repair utilizing robotic-assisted (fully) endoscopic surgery.  Dr. Deuse has also developed innovative approaches to heart [...]

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports on legendary coach John Madden's open-heart surgery performed at UCSF Medical Center on November 30, 2015:  Pro Football Hall of Fame coach John Madden is "fine and feisty" and already well along the road to a full recovery from open-heart surgery at the UCSF Medical Center on Nov. 30, family sources told The Sports Xchange on Thursday. Madden moved to an in-patient Oakland rehabilitation facility Wednesday and will reside there the next couple of weeks, but is described as "already well along the road" to a full recovery. Madden, who will be 80 years [...]

The Chico News and Review reports on the journey of Richard Wodrich to the double lung transplant he received at UCSF Medical Center for treatment of irreversible and incurable chronic lung disease. The transplant was performed by Dr. Jasleen Kukreja, Surgical Director of the UCSF Lung Transplant Program.  Longtime local bluegrass musician Richard Wodrich loves to sing and play guitar, but that became progressively more difficult over the last decade or so, to the point where he had trouble just breathing—let alone playing music. About four years ago, he was formally diagnosed with chronic [...]

The Department of Surgery is deeply saddened to report the recent passing of Sam Bastani, DO, the Heart/Lung Transplant Clinical Fellow in the Division of Adult Cardiothoracic Surgery for 2013-2014. Jai Jhulelal of the Sindhu Center in Norwalk California has provided the following memoriam in Dr. Bastani's honor:  Husband of Rachna Khemchandani and Father of Roshni and Rhea,  Son in Law of Arjan (Alberto) & Hoory Khemchandani, His soul merged with the Divine on Friday, October 3rd 2014, We pray to God "May His Soul Rest In Peace". In his honor, the Department of Surgery [...]

Julius M. Guccione, Jr., Ph.D., a biomedical engineer and co-director of the UCSF Cardiac Biomechanics Lab, was recently featured in the "new look" return of the popular video series featuring researchers, clinicians and educators at UCSF. The Mission in a Minute Series showcases the best of UCSF. Professor Guccione's "Mission in a Minute" is titled 3D Modeling to Help Treat Cardiovascular Disease. His long-term goal is to use realistic physics-based simulation to optimize the design of cardiovascular devices for individual patients. The "Mission in a Minute" series is a forum for [...]

Building on earlier retrospective validation studies, a team of Thoracic Oncology Program researchers, demonstrated in a small prospective study the clinical utility of a 14-gene expression assay in stratifying risk among non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. In a recently published paper in the journal Clinical Lung Cancer, lead author Gavitt Woodard, M.D., a general surgery research resident in the Thoracic Oncology Laboratory, and coauthors  David M. Jablons, M.D. (pictured second) and Michael Mann, M.D., (pictured 3rd) began  to address a key question regarding widespread use of [...]

UCSF News reports on the uses of the Google Glass in the operating room and the pioneering efforts of Pierre Theodore, M.D. in deploying the technology: Cardiothoracic surgeon Pierre Theodore, MD, goes into the operating room with one main goal: getting his patient in and out of surgery safely and efficiently. Technology has offered vast improvements to that process and a new technology gadget, the Google Glass, is taking that a giant step further.   Google Glass, a 1.8-ounce computer configured like a pair of eyeglasses, already is gaining popularity in the medical world as a teaching [...]

Advances in the treatment of complex aortic aneurysms — especially novel endovascular devices and hybrid procedures — make it possible to choose the right procedure for the right patient at the right time to minimize risk and maximize long-term benefit, says Michael Conte, M.D., chief of the Division of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery at UCSF Medical Center. "We still perform a significant volume of open repair for complex aneurysms," Conte says. "But we're also one of only two or three centers in the country with deep experience in the use of branched stent grafts." A leading [...]

Dr. Julius Guccione, a biomedical engineer and co-director of the UCSF Cardiac Biomechanics Lab, lauded the development of technology rendering a virtual image of a beating heart by Dassault Systèmes, a French design and simulation software company. Dassault has developed a complete, three-dimensional view of the electrical impulses and muscle-fiber contractions that enable the human heart to function seamlessly. Guccione (pictured right), a Professor in the Division of Adult Cardiothoracic Surgery at UCSF and Principal Investigator on multiple NIH grants developing virtual tools to aid [...]

UCSF News reports on the use of a Ventricular Assist Device (VAD) as a bridge to a heart transplant allowing a patient to lose the weight needed to undergo the procedure: Suitulaga "Sugi" Hunkin has been overweight most of his life. He attributes that to his love of food and his Samoan ancestry.  Because of his size, he also had trouble breathing and experienced irregular heartbeat - symptoms his doctors diagnosed as heart disease called cardiomyopathy, which usually leads to heart failure... He needed heart transplantation surgery to replace his failing heart, but before that could happen, [...]

UCSF News reports on the story of Rowan Jimenez, a rock climber who underwent a double lung transplant at UCSF for treatment of scleroderma, an autoimmune disease, crediting UCSF with getting his life back and resuming his passion for climbing mountains. The 10,911-foot view from the top of Cathedral Peak in Yosemite National Park is a familiar sight for Rowan Jimenez. The 44-year-old rock climber and musician has traversed this mountain many times before, but this particular attempt on a September day in 2010 was different: It marked a triumphant return on the two-year anniversary of his [...]

Building on their  earlier work reported in The Lancet, two UCSF thoracic surgeons   David M. Jablons, M.D. (left) and   Michael Mann, M.D. (middle), and  Johannes Kratz, M.D. (right) a former surgical resident in the  Thoracic Oncology Lab, showed they could accurately stratify patients even with the earliest stage of lung cancer into groups at low-, intermediate- or high-risk of death based solely on the activity of 14 different genes found in their tumors. The group analyzed lung  tumors of patients diagnosed as Stage 1A  (T1a node-negative non-small-cell lung cancers (NSCLC)), the [...]

The NIH has awarded two UCF scientists, Hassan Lemjabbar-Alaoui, Ph.D and Joanna J. Phillips, M.D., Ph.D., a five-year $2.2m grant to study the clinical utility of extracellular heparan sulfate endosulfatases, or SULFs, as biomarkers for early detection of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and malignant astrocytoma. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the U.S. and world-wide. Astrocytomas are primary brain neoplasms (tumors). Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the most common and malignant primary brain tumor, was responsible for the death of the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy. [...]

In the two largest clinical studies ever conducted on the molecular genetics of lung cancer, an international team, led by UCSF thoracic surgeons David M. Jablons, M.D. and Michael Mann, M.D., demonstrated that a 14-gene prognostic molecular assay better predicted the likelihood of death in early-stage lung cancer  patients versus conventional staging guidelines. Johannes Kratz, M.D., a former surgical resident in the  Thoracic Oncology Laboratory, helped spearhead the  development of the assay and was lead author of a paper published in The Lancet discussing the results. John Minna, M.D.", [...]

A team consisting of Hassan Lemjabbar-Alaoui, Ph.D.,  Assistant Adjunct Professor of Surgery and principal Investigator in the Thoracic Oncology Laboratory and Alaoui Lab, and Steven Rosen, PhD, Professor and Vice-chair of the Department of Anatomy, are developing a novel treatment for lung cancer in a unique collaboration between UCSF and Pfizer, the world's largest drug company. The Rosen-Alaoui team has identified an enzyme found at high levels in lung and other cancers and is developing antibodies to target the enzyme and disable the cancer, even in cells rendered cancerous by cigarette [...]

On October 16th, the Porsche Race Car Classic was held at at the Quail Lodge in Napa, CA.  The event, a collaboration with Porsche AG and Porsche Cars North America, was hosted by the UCSF Thoracic Oncology Program and Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer Foundation. Proceeds from the highly successful event benefited the respective hosts. The theme, "Driving Lung Cancer Off the Planet", was underscored in a video produced by the Thoracic Oncology Program in connection with the event. Narrated by David M. Jablons, M.D., FACS, [...]

    The UCSF Thoracic Oncology Laboratory recently acquired the 5500 Series SOLiDTM , a next-generation DNA sequencer manufactured by Life Technologies Inc. This state-of-the-art sequencer offers a level of precision  previously unattainable, and empowers lab scientists to more deeply probe the underlying molecular biology of myriad cancers: from primary thoracic tumors such as lung cancer, esophageal cancer, and mesothelioma, to metastatic sarcoma, melanoma, colorectal cancer, and breast cancer that has spread to the lung.Insights gained from  this research could lead to [...]