Research Summary
I am professor of pediatrics at the UCSF School of Medicine. I am the leader of the Pediatric Malignancies Program of the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCSF and am one of the leading translational investigators in neuroblastoma therapy internationally. I have extensive experience over the last 25 years in clinical trials and translational research in neuroblastoma and pediatric oncology. I was the chair of the Neuroblastoma Strategy Group in the Children’s Cancer Group for ten years and continue on the Neuroblastoma Steering committee. In this role, I initiated several landmark randomized trials in high-risk neuroblastoma, improving outcome with myeloablative therapy and with two biologic targeted therapies. I am the Principal Investigator for the UCSF Alex Lemonade Center of Excellence for Developmental Therapeutics. I have established and lead the NCI-funded NANT clinical trials consortium for targeted therapy of neuroblastoma, now in its third 5-year cycle. I have been a leader in the development of response evaluation internationally and targeted radiotherapy with the radiopharmaceutical, metaiodobenzylguanidine (131I-mIBG). I have led multiple phase I, II, and III clinical trials for advanced neuroblastoma, as well as collaborative work in pre-clinical studies of combination targeted therapy, mechanisms of MIBG uptake, and MIBG imaging for dosimetry and prognosis. I have also collaborated closely on preclinical work in MYCN and PI3 kinase pathways.
Research Funding
August 5, 1999 - May 31, 2023 - Cancer Center Support Grant , Co-Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: P30CA082103
July 6, 2000 - May 31, 2015 - Biology and Therapy of High Risk Neuroblastoma , Co-Investigator . Sponsor: NIH/NCI, Sponsor Award ID: P01CA081403
December 1, 1981 - March 31, 2007 - PEDIATRIC CLINICAL RESEARCH CENTER , Co-Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: M01RR001271
June 20, 2003 - May 31, 2006 - 131 I-MIBG Escalating Dose Rapid Sequence Double Infusi* , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R21CA097758
Education
Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA, B.A., 1969, Chemistry
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, M.D., 1973, Medicine
University of Colorado, Denver, CO, Resident, 1976, Pediatrics
University of California, San Francisco, CA, Fellow, 1979, Pediatric Hematology/Oncology