Nearly half of the patients in a safety net health system who had an abnormal stool-based screening test for colorectal cancer failed to receive the recommended colonoscopy within a year, despite the benefits of an integrated health care system with access to colonoscopy and shared electronic health records, according to researchers at UC San Francisco.

Education by community-based non-professional health workers significantly increased colorectal cancer (CRC) screening rates among mostly non-English-speaking, older Chinese-Americans in San Francisco, according to a study led by researchers at UC San Francisco.

UC San Francisco researchers have developed a new variety of targeting system for chemotherapy drugs based on the unusually high free iron content of many cancer cells — distinct from the protein-bound iron that is common throughout the body’s cells.

In the summer of 2016, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that cancer had surpassed heart disease as the leading cause of death in California and 21 other states. This awareness has contributed to a growing number of ambitious new cancer prevention initiatives, from small, community-based projects to larger, international efforts.

California adolescents perceive smoking cigarettes to be riskier – and less socially acceptable – than they did a dozen years ago, according to a new study that comes amid a changing tobacco product landscape.

The ability of lung tumor cells to spread rapidly within the body makes lung cancer difficult to eradicate and contributes to its status as the leading cause of U.S. cancer deaths in both men and women.

Cancer kills more San Francisco residents than any other cause besides heart disease, and costs patients, families and taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars each year. 

Next-generation sequencing for patients at UCSF Medical Center is prompting changes in brain tumor diagnoses for some children and a retooling of treatment plans in many cases.

A team of researchers led by UC San Francisco scientists has identified a new drug target for triple-negative breast cancer, an aggressive disease subtype that has the poorest outcomes and accounts for as many as one in five cases.