"Innovation in medicine is driven by need, but also by the market,"
said Dr. Michael R. Harrison, the director emeritus of the Fetal
Treatment Center and the director of the Pediatric Device
Consortium, both at the University of California, San Francisco.
"Big markets have lots of folks developing devices, but small
markets like the pediatrics market don't."
Lung Cancer Systems Genetics Expands Map of Drug Discovery
UCSF Thoracic Oncology Program and Laboratory, Kim Lab - April 19, 2013
In the journal Nature Communications, lead
author Il-Jin Kim, Ph.D., (pictured
left) Director of Applied Genomics in the UCSFThoracic Oncology
Lab, Thoracic Oncology Program Leader, David M. Jablons, M.D.,
(pictured right) and others, demonstrate the value of mining vast
gene expression networks to expand the pool of therapeutic targets
in lung cancer. This could lead to the discovery of novel druggable targets specific to
lung adenocarcinoma, sparing normal lung tissue, and to anti-cancer
drugs with minimal side toxicity yet with high tumor killing
efficacy.
Awards Announced for 26th Annual J. Engelbert Dunphy Resident Research Symposium
UCSF Department of Surgery - April 09, 2013
The annual
26th Annual J. Engelbert Dunphy Resident Research Symposium was
held on April 5, 2013. The award for "Best Abstract" went to Robert Bell, MD with
runners-up Jessica Beard, MD,
MPH and Randi Smith, MD
MPH. Xiaoti Xu, MD
received the award for
"Best Quick
Shot". Jack Harbell, MD
and Cristina O'Donohue, MD received Honorable Mention certificates
for their presentations.
16th Annual Maurice Galante Lecture Featuring Malcolm Gladwell (Watch Online)
UCSF Department of Surgery - March 15, 2013
The 16th Annual Maurice Galante Lecture took place on
Febuary 22, 2013 and featured Malcolm Gladwell. The video of the
lecture can be
watched online.
Malcolm
Gladwell has been a staff writer with The New Yorker
magazine since 1996. His 1999 profile of Ron Popeil won a National
Magazine Award, and in 2005 he was named one of Time Magazine's 100
Most Influential People. He is the author of four books, "The
Tipping Point: How Little Things Make a Big Difference," (2000),
"Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking" (2005), and
"Outliers: The Story of Success" (2008) all of which were number
one New York Times bestsellers. His latest book, "What the Dog Saw"
(2009) is a compilation of stories published in The New
Yorker.
From 1987 to 1996, he was a reporter with the Washington Post,
where he covered business, science, and then served as the
newspaper's New York City bureau chief. He graduated from the
University of Toronto, Trinity College, with a degree in history.
He was born in England, grew up in rural Ontario, and now lives in
New York City.
Alden H. Harken, M.D. Receives Lifetime Achievement Award from Society of University Surgeons (SUS)
Alameda Health System, Society of University Surgeons - March 15, 2013
Alden H. Harken, M.D.was recently honored with the 2012
Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of University Surgeons
(SUS). Dr. Harken is Chief of the UCSF-East Bay Surgery Program,
and Chief of
Surgery and Chair of the Surgery Department at Alameda Health
System's (AHS). Over the course of his career, His
contributions to the field of cardiac electrophysiology include
influential early work around mapping and surgical ablation for
ventricular tachyarrhythmias. Dr. Harken's work in this area helped
our understanding of the pathophysiology of ventricular tachycardia
and shaped today's methods of ablative treatment of ischemic
ventricular tachycardia. According to SUS, "Dr. Harken's energy,
insight, enthusiasm and innovative work have created a legacy that
will influence the treatment of cardiac arrhythmias for many years
to come. He has clearly been a pioneer in the field, and has been a
true role model for his colleagues in the SUS and AAS."
*
*Excerpts above from news release
for Alameda Health System's (AHS)
JAMA Article Highlights Critical Need for Surgeons to Address Smoking Cessation with Patients
Surgical Hospitalist Program News - March 13, 2013
A recent Viewpoint article in JAMA, co-authored
by
John Maa, M.D., Assistant Professor of Surgery at UCSF,
highlighted the importance of smoking cessation before surgery, a
conversation that both improves surgical outcomes and creates a
teachable moment in the life of the patient:
"Elective surgery offers a powerful opportunity for physicians
to help smokers quit, yet 25% to 30% of patients smoke
perioperatively, and approximately 10 million patients who smoke
undergo surgical procedures annually. Approximately 42% of all
surgeons and 70% of anesthesiologists do not routinely counsel
patients to stop smoking before an operation or do not refer them
to appropriate cessation services........Perioperative smoking is
linked to surgical complications including wound infection,
respiratory failure, cardiac arrest, myocardial infarction,
prolonged hospital stay, stroke, sepsis, shock, and anastomotic
leak."
Maurice Galante, M.D., Legendary Surgeon and Renaissance Man, Dies
UCSF Department of Surgery - March 07, 2013
Dr. Maurice Galante, whose professional career at UCSF spanned
an incredible 44 years (1945-1989), passed away on February 5,
2013. Dr. Galante was born in
Rhodes in 1919 and came to the United States alone to receive his
undergraduate and medical education. He entered his residency
training in general surgery at UCSF in 1945. He subsequently became
a member of the Department of Surgery faculty. As a faculty member
at UCSF, Dr. Galante was celebrated as a master surgeon and for his
varied interests in medical ethics, music and the arts. His
reputation with patients was legendary and his grateful patients
helped him and the Department of Surgery establish the Galante
Lecture Program, The Galante Research Program and the Maurice
Galante Distinguished Professorship.
Rogers Urges Caution on New Medical Device to Treat GERD
U.S. News - February 22, 2013
A recent
study in the New England Journal of Medicine touts a new
medical device for the treatment of
Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD) as an alternative
to standard therapy, long-term proton-pump inhibitors or
Nissen Fundoplication. The
new treatment is a surgical procedure in which a small band of
magnetic beads is surgically implanted to augment the lower esophageal
sphincter, the valve
between the esophagus and stomach.
ButStanley J. Rogers, M.D.,Associate Professor of Surgery at
UCSF,Chief of Minimally
Invasive Surgery, and Chief of Bariatric Surgery, expressed concern
about its use, telling CBS/KCBS News Healthwatch that the
device was essentially
untested except for the small study cited above. He cautioned that
the beads were a foreign
object and where the device was placed could
potentially cause serious complications including infection,
perforation and abdominal sepsis, leading to ultimate removal. He
emphasized that long-term data was needed to demonstrate
its safety and effectiveness.
Ventricular Assist Device (VAD) Serves as Bridge to Heart Transplant While Candidate Loses Required Weight
UCSF Department of Surgery, UCSF New - February 01, 2013
Suitulaga "Sugi" Hunkin has been overweight most of his
life. He attributes that to his love of food and his Samoan
ancestry. Because of
his size, he also had trouble breathing and experienced irregular
heartbeat - symptoms his doctors diagnosed as heart disease called
cardiomyopathy, which usually leads to heart
failure...........He needed
heart transplantation surgery to replace his failing heart, but
before that could happen, he needed to lose at least 100
pounds. "If a patient
is very obese, he bears a lot of risks and complications,
inter-operatively as well as post-operatively," said Georg Wieselthaler.
M.D.,
Professor of Surgery of UC
San Francisco's Division of Adult Cardiothoracic Surgery, and
director and surgical chief of the UCSF Cardiac Transplantation and
Mechanical Circulatory Support. "And therefore it's absolutely
favorable for patients to try and have a body mass index of below
35 before going into a complex operation."
Hunkin chose UCSF to help him with his heart failure. Its
pioneering Cardiothoracic Surgery program, now led by Scot H. Merrick,
M.D., was established 50 years ago by
chair Leon Goldman, MD, and Benson Roe, M.D. The
Heart and Lung Transplant Program has historically had high
one-year survival outcomes among academic surgery programs
nationally. To help Hunkin stay
alive, Wieselthaler installed a ventricular assist device (VAD), a
mechanical device that helps a failing heart pump blood. The VAD
allowed Hunkin stay alive, but it did not help him lose weight.
*Excerpt above adapted from UCSF
News
Il-Jin Kim Awarded Grant to Investigate Novel Genetic Profiles in Mesothelioma
UCSF Thoracic Oncology Program - January 24, 2013
The Mesothelioma Applied Research
Foundation (MARF), a leading national funder of research for this
disease, has awarded Il-Jin Kim, Ph.D., Assistant Professor and Director of
Applied Genomics in the Thoracic Oncology
Laboratory, a grant to study Novel fusion and
tumor-specific isoform candidates in malignant pleural
mesothelioma (MPM), an aggressive and highly lethal cancer, with
the ultimate goal of identifying therapeutic targets. The research
focuses on a class of patient who lack the three most common
genetic deletions (CDKN2A, NF2, and BAP1). Studying the unique
genetic profile of this so-called triple-negative (TN) MPM patient
population may reveal unique genetic characteristics and oncogenic
fusions contributing to MPM development. The goal would be to
target the aberrant cancer-inducting activity in this small group
of patients with novel therapies. This is a similar approach to the
identification of the EML4-ALK fusion genes in non-small cell
lung cancer patients, leading to the novel therapy crizotinib,
an example of 21st century precision medicine.
Teen Liver Transplant Recipient to Honor Donor at 2013 Rose Parade
UCSF News - December 28, 2012
Three years
ago, Alfonso Garcia was diagnosed with Wilson's disease and was in
desperate need of a liver transplant. George Becker, who signed up
to be an organ donor on his driver's license when he was 16, ended
up being the right match. Garcia's UCSF medical team - which
included transplant surgeon Ryutaro Hirose, MD (pictured
first); Philip Rosenthal, MD (pictured
second), medical director of the Pediatric Liver Transplant
Program;
Emily Perito, MD, a clinical fellow in pediatrics and
gastroenterology; and nurse practitioner Susan Diaz, MSN -
performed a successful transplant.Since receiving the liver
transplant, Garcia has made it a mission to spread the word about
the value of organ donation by sharing the memory of his hero,
George Becker, who died after a bad sinus infection spread to his
brain. As part of that mission, Garcia was selected by UCSF and the
California Transplant Donor Network to ride on the Donate Life
"Journeys of the Heart" float at the 2013 Tournament of Roses
Parade in Pasadena, Calif., on Tuesday, Jan. 1., in honor of
Becker. The float will bear a florograph of Becker - a portrait
made of flowers.
UCSF Vascular Surgeon advocates discussing medical challenges associated with space tourism
San Francisco Chronicle, Time Magazine Online, NPR.org - December 14, 2012
The world may be on the brink of a vast new frontier of tourism
- and that could raise a few odd, and at this point unanswerable,
questions for doctors. Space tourism is on the cusp of
becoming a real possibility for people who don't have the health
and fitness of a NASA astronaut, and aerospace medicine experts
including Dr.
Marlene Grenon, M.D., C.M., of the UCSF Division of
Vascular and Endovascular Surgery, believe that now is the time to
think about medical guidelines. There's a wealth of information
about the effects of space travel on government astronauts - from
the symptoms of space sickness to the long-term repercussions of
lengthy stays at the International Space Station. But the effects
on the average person with imperfect health are unknown. In a
paper published in the British Medical Journal, Dr. Grenon and
colleagues provide background in the field of space medicine for
non-experts and clinicians.
CFCF Awards New Research Grant to Dr. Eric Nakakura to Study Resistance to mTOR Inhibition in Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumors
UCSF Department of Surgery & CCFC-AACR - December 13, 2012
Eric Nakakura, M.D., Ph.D. has been awarded the 2012
Caring for Carcinoid Foundation-AACR Grant for Carcinoid Tumor and
Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumor Research. Dr. Nakakura will
receive $250,000 over two years to understand why some patients
develop resistance to mTOR inhibiting drugs like everolimus. In
particular, he will focus on INK128, a new mTOR inhibitor to see if
it can overcome this resistance in mouse models of pancreatic
neuroendocrine cancer. He will also evaluate the utility of
(68)GA-DOTATOC PET-CT to monitor tumor response to mTOR inhibiting
therapies like everolimus and INK128.
Bariatric Surgery May Improve Chances for Successful Organ Transplantation
American Society For Metabolic And Bariatric Surgery, ABC News - December 03, 2012
"Bariatric surgery has been widely accepted in the medical
field, but now we're trying to apply it to specific patient
groups," said
Matthew Y.C. Lin, M.D., a gastrointestinal surgeon, a former
surgical fellow*, and now an Assistant Professor of Surgery at
UCSF. In a pilot study of 26 morbidly obese patients waiting
for a kidney or liver transplant, Dr. Lin and colleagues in the UCSF Bariatric
Surgery Program found laproscopic sleeve
gastrectomy, a procedure that removes most of the stomach and
reshapes it into a small tube or sleeve, significantly improved the
chances of undergoing successful organ transplantation. "The
reason why physicians are skittish about bariatric surgery for
organ transplant is that these patients have more medical
comorbities," said Lin, who is the lead author of the study. "But
our study shows that it is safe to proceed."
East Bay Toddler in Waiting Game For a Combined Liver-Kidney Transplant at UCSF
Contra Costa Times - November 24, 2012
21-month old
Matthew Ouimet was born with primary hyperoxaluria Type I, a
rare liver condition that causes buildup of oxalates in the body
which damages the kidney. Matthew first experienced renal failure
at 4 months old. On both the kidney and liver transplant waiting
lists, he now undergoes four-hour dialysis sessions six days a week
at UCSF Medical Center, attended by Julius Heilman, R.N. (pictured
left), patient care manager of the pediatric dialysis unit and the UCSF Pediatric
Transplant team. "The waiting list for a liver is based on how ill
you are," explains Dr. Paul
Brakeman (pictured right), a pediatric nephrologist and
Medical Director of the Pediatric Dialysis Unit UCSF. "The
more ill you are, the more points you get, the more likely you are
to get an organ. Matthew's lab tests look good because he has a
functioning liver. He just doesn't have the gene that removes the
oxalates from his system."