Research & Training

The efforts of individual researchers, laboratories, cross-disciplinary programs, and focused areas of investigation all contribute to the research goals of the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Multidisciplinary Programs

Lab scientists, clinical investigators, epidemiologists, and providers of patient care work collaboratively in program areas. See individual program listings for program leaders, goals, and current research initiatives.

Core Facilities

State-of-the-art support services and technology provide investigators with tools to facilitate the achievement of their research goals.

SPOREs

Specialized Programs Of Research Excellence (SPOREs), sponsored by the National Cancer Institute, are prestigious initiatives that engage lab-based and population scientists, clinical investigators, and advocates in focused areas of research.

• Breast Cancer SPORE
• Brain Tumor SPORE

Investigational Therapeutics Resource

The Investigational Trials Resource (ITR) is an organizational unit within the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center (HDFCCC) which was launched in 2007 with the goal of centralizing and streamlining the HDFCCC’s clinical research infrastructure and increasing patient accrual.

Additional Cancer Research at UCSF

• Cancer Risk Program
  The UCSF Cancer Risk Program, part of the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, identifies families and individuals at high risk for colorectal, breast, ovarian, and prostate cancer by analysis of the family cancer pedigree, assessment of heritable risk, and testing for specific genetic mutations.
   
• Center for Evolution and Cancer
  The CEC brings together researchers from across the world to accelerate progress in cancer research, with the goal of employing evolutionarily informed approaches to advance cancer research, cancer prevention, and patient management.
   
• Melanoma Program
  The UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center Melanoma Program is a specialty service that manages all stages of melanoma, from diagnosis of early lesions to therapy for late-stage disease. This program offers a multidisciplinary approach to the diagnosis and management of melanoma. 

• Multiple Myeloma Program
  The Multiple Myeloma Program at UCSF is a comprehensive program that includes a clinical arm with physicians available for patient consultation and management of the disease, a clinical research arm that provides access to the very latest in new drugs and new therapies, a basic research arm that is actively identifying new targets and new agents for therapy, and a translational component dedicated to understanding the disease more fully, as well as to bringing these new agents rapidly to the clinic to be able to help our patients. Includes the UCSF Stephen and Nancy Grand Multiple Myeloma Translational Initiative (Grand MMTI).
   
• Pancreas Program
  The Pancreas Program is comprised of a multidisciplinary group of investigators focused on pancreatic cancer.