News

How a Powerful Genetic Test Matched An Infant's Cancer to a Life-Saving Therapy

Lara Stuart and her husband, David Lodge, first noticed the peculiar rash on their son Quincy’s face when he was just shy of 4 months old. Trips to the pediatrician and a dermatologist didn’t offer up any concrete answers – and within weeks, Quincy’s abdomen started to swell. Stuart and Lodge drove

Cancer Patients Turn to Crowdfunding to Pay for Medical Care

With patients increasingly resorting to crowdfunding websites to pay medical bills, a new UC San Francisco study finds that online donations are sought for lost wages, child care and even occasionally experimental treatments. On average, cancer patients are raising about a quarter of their goal of

Liver Transplant Candidates with Public Insurance Have Worse Waitlist Outcomes Than Those with Private Insurance

Patients with similar liver cancer characteristics on the waitlist for a liver transplant had significantly worse outcomes with public insurance compared to Kaiser Permanente or other private insurance, according to a study by researchers at UC San Francisco. Their findings appeared online Aug. 30

Medical Imaging Rates Continue to Rise Despite Push to Reduce Their Use

Despite a broad campaign among physician groups to reduce the amount of imaging in medicine, the rates of use of CT, MRI and other scans have continued to increase in both the U.S. and Ontario, Canada, according to a new study of more than 135 million imaging exams conducted by researchers at UC

Chemical Exposure Web Tool Defines Risks Faced by Millions of California Women

A new web tool spells out for the first time the exposures that more than 6.5 million working women in California face that could increase their risk for breast cancer, including industrial solvents, antimicrobials and phthalates. The tool, which was developed by researchers at UC San Francisco and

How E-Cigarette Use is Exposing Youth - and the Environment - to Toxic Chemicals

The use of electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, by American youth has surged so dramatically in recent years that the U.S. Surgeon General has declared it an “epidemic.” According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, e-cigarette use among middle school students increased by 48

Podcast: Will Precision Medicine work for me? Advances and Challenges in Cancer Research

Precision medicine is an emerging approach in cancer treatment and prevention. Its central principle revolves around the ability to identify personal gene characteristics and match them to specific treatment options. The advances and challenges of precision medicine in cancer care were discussed