Collaboration, Innovation, Team Science
This has been a year of collaboration, innovation, and accolades at the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. Our dedicated clinicians, curious researchers, and inspired philanthropists joined forces with patients and families, community groups, and government and industry partners to improve the quality of cancer screening and risk assessement, innovate treatment options, and improve survivorship. As the year winds down, we take a moment to reflect on some highlights.
Video Highlights
From the achievements of global cancer scholars, groundbreaking advances in clinical care, extensive public awareness campaigns, to podcasts and scientific symposia, each image opens to a video showcasing an element of our mission.
Spotlight on Science: Vaccines, Screening, Improved Treatment Options
- Studying the Impacts of Poverty on Cancer
- Do Combination Therapies Hold Hope for Prostate Cancer Patients?
- Transgender Women Benefit from Prostate Cancer Screenings
- Breast Density and BMI Both Play a Role in Breast Cancer Risk
- A Novel Approach Towards a Vaccine for Relapsing Acute Myeloid Leukemia: Q&A with Dr. Karin Gaensler
- Scientists Discover a Deadly Brain Cancer’s Hidden Weakness
- UCSF Improves Care Options for Metastatic Gastrointestinal Cancer
- A Vaccine Could Be on the Horizon for Pancreatic Cancer
- Michael B. Potter, MD, to Lead UCSF Effort to Improve Cancer Control in Mexico & Latin America
Additional news, awards, and events have been documented in our monthly newsletter archive.
HDFCCC at Conferences
Awards and Achievements
Through national and internal appointments, awards, and unique accolades, Cancer Center members were recognized as national leaders in cancer research in 2023.
Among noteworthy appointments this year, Margaret Tempero, MD was named to lead a new initiative focused on Cancer Early Detection and Interception (CEDI); Susan Chang, MD was appointed editor-in-chief of Neuro-Oncology; Shawn Hervey-Jumper, MD was named incoming Secretary-Treasurer of the Society for Neuro Oncology; and Kole Roybal, PhD was named Center Director for the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at UCSF. A range of awards and honors were bestowed on our faculty as well. Among the list, Kevan Shokat, PhD received National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Award for Scientific Discovery and was the recipient of the Sjöberg Prize from the Swedish Academy of Sciences; ASCO and Memorial Sloan Kettering Honored Alan Ashworth for Transformative Contributions, and Ana Velázquez Mañana, MD MSc was named among the top 5 female digital opinion leaders in oncology by Healio.
> View the full list of our members' awards and honors received in 2023
Designation and Accreditation
- After a lengthy review process and virtual site visit, the HDFCCC was renewed as a Comprehensive Cancer Center by the NCI. The Cancer Center retains the designation it gained in 1999.
- UCSF Health Cancer Services earned national accreditation from the Commission on Cancer of the American College of Surgeons. The UCSF cancer program has been continuously accredited by the CoC since 1933.
- The Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center was named a top oncology hospital by Becker's Hospital Review
Transitions
Welcome and congratulations to Dr. Ajai Chari, named Director of Multiple Myeloma Program and Professor of Clinical Medicine at UCSF.
Gratitude. We extend our appreciation to HDFCCC trailblazers who retired in 2023:
- Lewis Lanier, PhD, retired in June after a long and impressive tenure at UCSF. Dr. Lanier served as Chair of the UCSF Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at UCSF, and Co-Leader of the HDFCCC Cancer Immunology & Immunotherapy Program.
- Jane Rabbitt, RN, retired at the end of June after a 39 year career at UCSF. She started with Neuro-Oncology in 1988 under Dr. Michael Prados, and together they grew the Neuro-Oncology program into now 50+ staff in various positions (research, nursing, additional PIs, and administrative staff)
In Memoriam. The UCSF cancer community mourned the loss of several members of the cancer community, including:
- John S. Greenspan, BDS, PhD, a distinguished professor emeritus of Pathology in the UCSF School of Medicine, Director-Emeritus of the AIDS Research Institute at UCSF, and co-founding Director of the UCSF Oral AIDS Center and the UCSF AIDS Specimen Bank, passed away on March 31, 2023.
- Charles “Chuck” Feeney, one of UCSF’s greatest supporters and friends and the man Forbes magazine named America’s most generous philanthropist, passed away on October 9, 2023, at the age of 92.
- Oncology luminary Dr. Isaac Craig Henderson, former chief of the Division of Medical Oncology and deputy director of the cancer center at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) passed away on December 26, 2022.
We extend our condolences to all our community who have experienced loss this year.