UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center

Photo of Christopher C. Benz, MD  Christopher C. Benz, MD

Adjunct Professor, Department of Medicine, UCSF

Contact

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(415) 209-2092 (voice)
(415) 209-2232 (fax)

Box 1270, UCSF; San Francisco, CA 94143-1722

Education

University of California, Los Angeles, B.S., 1968, Biochemistry
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, M.D., 1972, Medicine
VGH/CCABC & UBC, Vancouver, B.C., Canada, 1972-1978, Int Med/Hem-Onc
Yale Univ. School of Med, New Haven, CT, 1978-79, Oncology

Professional Experience

  • 1979-1982
    Postdoctoral Associate, Oncology-Pharmacology, Yale University School of Medicine
  • 1981-1982
    Instructor, Department of Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine
  • 1982-1982
    Assistant Professor of Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine
  • 1983-1982
    Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco
  • 1984-1982
    Director, UCSF Hormone Receptor Laboratory
  • 1988-1992
    Associate Professor of Medicine, UCSF
  • 1991-present
    Faculty of Molecular Medicine, UCSF
  • 1994-present
    Professor of Medicine in Residence, UCSF (converted to Adjunct Professor, 9/2000)
  • 1994-1992
    Acting Director, UCSF Cancer Research Institute
  • 1995-present
    Member, Joint UCSF-UCB Graduate Group in Bioengineering
  • 1997-1992
    Visiting Scientist/Professor of Mol. Medicine, Univ. Basel & Friedrich Miescher Inst., Basel
  • 2000-present
    Director, Cancer and Developmental Therapeutics Program, Buck Institute for Age Research

Selected Publications

  • 105. Scott GK, Mattie MD, Berger C, Benz SC, and Benz CC. Rapid alteration of microRNA levels by histone deacetylase inhibition. Cancer Res. 66: 1277-1281, 2006.
  • 106. Kumar AS, Campbell M, Benz CC, and Esserman LJ. A call for clinical trials: lipophilic statins may prove effective in treatment and prevention of particular breast cancer subtypes. J. Clin. Oncol. 24: 2127, 2006.
  • 107. Kumar AS, Benz CC, and Esserman LJ. Clinical trials are required to prove the chemopreventive worth of statins. Arch. Intern. Med. 166: 1143, 2006.
  • 108. Marx C, Berger C, Xu F, Amend C, Scott GK, Hann B, Park JW, and Benz CC. Validated high-throughput screening of drug-like small molecules for inhibitors of ErbB2 transcription. ASSAY and Drug Development Technologies 4: 273-284, 2006.
  • 109. Urban P, Vuaroqueaux V, Labuhn M, Delorenzi M, Wirapati P, Wight E, Senn H-J, Benz C, Eppenberger U, and Eppenberger-Castori S. Increased expression of urokinase-type plasminogen activator mRNA determines adverse prognosis in ErbB2-positive primary breast cancer. J. Clin. Oncol. 24: 4245-4253, 2006.
  • 110. Campbell MJ, Esserman LJ, Zhou Y, Shoemaker M, Lobo M, Borman E, Baehner R, Kumar AS, Adduci K, Marx C, Petricoin EF, Liotta LA, Winters M, Benz S, and Benz CC. Breast cancer growth prevention by statins. Cancer Res. 66: 8707-8714, 2006.
  • 111. Hayes ME, Drummond DC, Kirpotin DB, Zheng WW, Noble CO IV, Park JW, Marks JD, Benz CC, and Hong K. Genospheres: self-assembling nucleic acid-lipid nanoparticles suitable for targeted gene delivery. Gene Therapy, 13: 646-651, 2006.
  • 112. Kirpotin DB, Drummond DC, Shao Y, Shalaby MR, Hong K, Nielsen UB, Marks JD, Benz CC, and Park JW. Antibody targeting of long-circulating lipidic nanoparticles does not increase tumor localization but does increase internalization in animal models. Cancer Res. 66: 6732-6740, 2006
  • 113. Mattie MD, Benz CC, Bowers J, Sensinger K, Wong L, Scott GK, Fedele V, Ginzinger D, Getts R, and Haqq C. Optimized high-throughput microRNA expression profiling provides novel biomarker assessment of clinical prostate and breast cancer biopsies. Molecular Cancer 5:24, 2006.
  • 114. Kumar AS, Cureton E, Shim V, Sakata T, Moore DH, Benz CC, Esserman LJ, and Hwang ES. Type and duration of exogenous hormone use impacts breast cancer histology. Ann. Surg. Oncol. 14: 695-703, 2007.
  • 115. Benz CC, Fedele V, Xu F, Ylstra B, Ginzinger D, Yu M, Moore D, Hall RK, Wolf D, Disis ML, Eppenberger-Castori S, Eppenberger U, Schittulli F, Tommasi S, Paradiso A, Scott GK, and Albertson DG. Altered promoter usage characterizes monoallelic transcription arising with ERBB2 amplification in human breast cancers. Genes, Chromosomes & Cancer 45: 983-994, 2006.
  • 116. Hayes ME, Drummond DC, Hong K. Zheng WW, Khorosheva VA, Cohen JA, Noble CO IV, Park JW, Marks JD, Benz CC, and Kirpotin DB. Increased target specificity of anti-HER2 genospheres by modification of surface charge and degree of PEGylation. Molecular Pharmaceutics 3: 726-736, 2006.
  • 117. Tommasi S, Fedele V, Lacalamita R, Bruno M, Schittulli F, Ginzinger D, Scott G, Eppenberger-Castori S, Calistri D, Casadei S, Seymour I, Longo S, Giannelli G, Pilato B, Simone G, Benz CC, and Paradiso A. 655Val and 1170Pro ERBB2 SNPs in familial breast cancer risk and BRCA1 alterations. Cell Oncol. 29: 241-248, 2007.
  • 118. Scott GK, Goga A, Bhaumik D, Berger CE, Sullivan CS, and Benz CC. Coordinate suppression of ERBB2 and ERBB3 by enforced expression of microRNA miR-125a or miR-125b. J. Biol. Chem. 282: 1479-1486, 2007.
  • 119. Benz CC, Atsriku C, Yau C, Britton D, Schilling B, Gibson BW, Baldwin MA, and Scott GK. Novel pathways associated with quinone induced stress in breast cancer cells. Drug Metabolism Reviews 38: 601-613, 2006.
  • 120. Vuaroqueaux V, Urban P, Labuhn M, Delorenzi M, Wirapati P, Benz CC, Flury R, Dieterich H, Spyratos F, Eppenberger U, Eppenberger-Castori S. Low E2F1 transcript levels are a strong determinant of favorable breast cancer outcome. Breast Cancer Research 9: R33, 2007.
  • 121. Roth A, Drummond DC, Conrad F, Hayes M, Kirpotin DB, Benz CC, Marks JD, and Liu B. Anti-CD166 single chain antibody-mediated intracellular delivery of liposomal drugs to prostate cancer cells. Mol. Cancer Therapeutics 6: 2737-2746, 2007.
  • 122. Zhou Y, Yau C, Gray JW, Chew K, Dairkee SH, Moore DH, Eppenberger U, Eppenberger-Castori S, and Benz CC. Enhanced NFkB and AP-1 transcriptional activity associated with antiestrogen resistant breast cancer. BMC Cancer 7: 59, 2007.
  • 123. Park JW, Neve RM, Szollosi J, and Benz CC. Unraveling the biologic and clinical complexities of HER2. Clinical Breast Cancer 8: 392-401, 2008.
  • 124. Atsriku C, Benz CC, Scott GK, Gibson BW, and Baldwin MA. Quantification of cysteine oxidation in human estrogen receptor by mass spectrometry. Anal. Chem. 79: 3083-3090, 2007.
  • 125. Marx, C, Yau C, Banwait S, Zhou Y, Scott GK, Hann B, Park JW, and Benz CC. Proteasome regulated ERBB2 and estrogen receptor pathways in breast cancer. Molecular Pharmacology 71: 1525-1534, 2007.
  • 126. Benz CC, Campisi J, Cohen HJ, Ershler WB, Haubein L, Irminger-Finger I. Meeting Report: Translational research at the aging and cancer interface. Cancer Res. 67: 4560-4563, 2007.
  • 127. Kumar AS, Benz CC, Shim V, Minami CA, Moore DH, and Esserman LJ. Estrogen receptor-negative breast cancer is less likely to arise among lipophilic statin users. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention 17: 1028-1033, 2008. (Editorial comment: Byers T. Statins, breast cancer, and an invisible switch. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention 17: 1026-1027, 2008.
  • 128. Yau C, Fedele V, Roydasgupta R, Fridlyand J, Hubbard A, Gray JW, Chew K, Dairkee SH, Moore DH, Schittulli F, Tommasi S, Paradiso A, Albertson DG, and Benz CC. Aging impacts transcriptome but not genome of hormone-dependent breast cancers. Breast Cancer Research 9: R59, 2007.
  • 129. Goga A and Benz CC. Anti-oncomir suppression of tumor phenotypes. Mol. Interventions. 7: 199-202, 2007.
  • 130. Benz CC. Impact of aging on the biology of breast cancer. Critical Reviews in Oncology/Hematology. 66: 65-74, 2008.
  • 131. Britton DJ, Scott GK, Schilling B, Atsriku C, Held J, Gibson BW, Benz CC., and Baldwin MA. A novel serine phosphorylation site detected in the N-terminal domain of estrogen receptor isolated from human breast cancer cells. J. Am. Soc. Mass. Spectrom. 19: 729-740, 2008. (+ Journal cover image from article)
  • 132. Scott GK, Marx C, Berger CE, Saunders LR, Verdin E, Schäfer S, Jung M, and Benz CC. Destabilization of ERBB2 transcripts by targeting 3¹UTR mRNA associated HuR and histone deacetylase-6 (HDAC6). Mol Cancer Res. 6: 1250-1258, 2008. (+ Journal cover image from article)
  • 133. Bhaumik D, Scott GK, Schokrpur S, Patil CK, Campisi J, and Benz CC. Expression of microRNA 146 suppresses NF-kB activity with reduction of metastatic potential in breast cancer cells. Oncogene 27: 5643-5647, 2008.
  • 134. Yau C, and Benz CC. Genes responsive to both oxidant stress and loss of estrogen receptor (ER) function identify a poor prognosis group of ER-positive primary breast cancers. Breast Cancer Res. 10: R61, 2008. (editorial; Neven P, Van Gorp T, and Deraedt K, BCR 10:109, 2008) (responding comment; Benz CC and Yau C, Relationship of Ox-E/ER signature expression with clinical parameters and outcome in age-stratified cohorts, BCR, http://breast-cancer-research.com/content/10/5/109/comments#310608
  • 135. Benz CC and Yau C. Aging, oxidative stress, and cancer: paradigms in parallax. Nature Reviews Cancer 8: 875-879, 2008.
  • 136. Atsriku C, Britton DJ, Held JM, Schilling B, Scott GK, Gibson BW, Benz CC, and Baldwin MA. Systematic mapping of posttranslational modifications in human estrogen receptor alpha, with emphasis on novel phosphorylation sites. Molecular Cellular Proteomics 8: 467-480, 2009.
  • 137. Noble CO, Guo Z, Hayes ME, Marks JD, Park JW, Benz CC, Kirpotin DB, and Drummond DC. Characterization of highly stable liposomal and immunoliposomal formulations of vincristine and vinblastine. Cancer Chemotherapy and Pharmacology 64: 741-751, 2009.
  • 138. Drummond DR, Noble CO, Guo Z, Hayes ME, Connoly-Ingrim C, Gabriele B, Hann B, Liu B, Park JW, Hong K, Benz CC, Marks JD, and Kirpotin DB. Development of highly stable and targetable nanoliposomal formulation of topotecan. J. Controlled Release 141: 13-21, 2010.
  • 139. Suzuki J, Chen Y-Y, Scott GK, DeVries S, Chin K, Benz CC, Waldman FM, Hwang ES. Protein acetylation and histone deacetylase expression associated with malignant breast cancer progression. Clin. Cancer Res. 15: 3163-3171, 2009.
  • 140. Hurst DR, Edmonds MD, Scott GK, Benz CC, and Welch DR. Breast cancer metastasis suppressor 1 BRMS1 up-regulates miR-146 that suppresses breast cancer metastasis. Cancer Res. 69: 1279-1283, 2009. (+ image on journal cover)
  • 141. Coppe J-P, Amend C, Semeiks J, Baehner FL, Bayani N, Campisi J, Benz CC., Gray JW, and Neve RM. ERBB receptor regulation of ESX/ELF3 promotes invasion in breast epithelial cells. The Open Cancer Journal 3: 89-100, 2010.
  • 142. Ereman RR, Prebil LA, Mockus M, Koblick K, Orenstein F, Benz CC, and Clarke CA. Recent trends in hormone therapy utilization and breast cancer incidence rates in the high incidence population of Marin County, California. BMC Public Health 10: 228, 2010.
  • 143. Held JM, Britton DJ, Scott GK, Schilling B, Puckett RL, Baldwin MA, Gibson BW, and Benz CC. Ligand restricted phosphorylation of estrogen receptor-a at serine-294. (submitted, 2009).
  • 144. Held JM, Danielson SR, Behring JB, Atsriku C, Britton DJ, Puckett RL, Schilling B, Campisi J, Benz CC, and Gibson BW. Targeted quantitation of site-specific cysteine oxidation in endogenous proteins using a differential alkylation and multiple reaction monitoring mass spectrometry approach. Molecular Cellular Proteomics 9: 1400-1410, 2010.
  • 145. Marx C, Held JM, Gibson BW, and Benz CC. ErbB2 trafficking and degradation associated with K48 and K63 polyubiquitination. Cancer Research 70: 3709-3717, 2010.
  • 146. Yau C, Esserman L, Moore DH, Waldman F, Sninsky J, and Benz CC. A multigene predictor of metastatic outcome in early stage receptor-negative and triple-negative breast cancer. Breast Cancer Research 12:R85, 2010.
  • 147. Pettersson F, Yau C, Dobocan MC, Culjkovic-Kralijacic B, Retrouvay H, Puckett R, Cocolakis E, Borden KLB, Benz CC, and Miller, WH. Ribavirin treatment effects on breast cancers overexpressing eIF4E, a biomaker with prognostic specificity for luminal B-type breast cancer. Clin. Cancer Res. 17: 2874-2884, 2011.
  • 148. Yau C, Wang Y, Zhang Y, Foekens JA, and Benz CC. Young age, increased tumor proliferation and FOXM1 expression predict early metastatic relapse only for endocrine-dependent breast cancers. Breast Cancer Res. Treat. 126: 803-810, 2011.
  • 149. The Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network (including CC Benz). Integrated genomic analyses of ovarian carcinoma. Nature 474: 609-615, 2011.
  • 150. Esserman LJ, Moore DH, Tsing P, Chu P, Yau C, Ozanne E, Chung RE, Tandon MJ, Park J, Baehner FL, Kreps S, Tutt ANJ, Gillett CE, and Benz CC. Biologic markers determine both the risk and the timing of recurrence in breast cancer. Breast Cancer Res. Treat. 129: 607-616, 2011.

Updated: March 14, 2012