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| Vice President Joe Biden heads the national Cancer Moonshot effort that aims to double the rate of progress toward a cure. Photo: Leah Puttkammer/Getty Images |
At the invitation of the White House, UCLA Health and the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center (JCCC) participated in the national Cancer Moonshot Summit on June 29, 2016, in the Dr. S. Jerome and Judith D. Tamkin Auditorium at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. Following a video introduction by Vice President Joe Biden, UCLA physicians and scientists presented an aspirational discussion on the future of cancer research and care and how UCLA will continue to be at the forefront of discovering the next generation of treatments.
Addressing an audience of patients, philanthropists and physicians, Dr. Fola May, assistant professor of medicine in the Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, led the presentation with UCLA panelists and JCCC members Dr. Maie St. John (RES ’05), director of the Head and Neck Cancer Program and Samuel J. Pearlman, MD and Della Z. Pearlman Term Chair in Head and Neck Surgery; Dr. Noah Federman (RES ’05, FEL ’08), director of the Pediatric Bone and Soft Tissue Sarcoma Program; Dr. Patricia Ganz (MD ’73), director of the Center for Cancer Prevention and Control; and Dr. Dennis Slamon (FEL ’82), chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology, director of Clinical/Translational Research, director of the Revlon/UCLA Women’s Cancer Research Program and Bowyer Professor of Medical Oncology.
The panelists and JCCC members highlighted an array of topics from precision medicine, targeted therapies, survivorship and collaboration across the entire UCLA campus to the crucial role of philanthropy in funding innovative investigations.
After questions from the audience, Dr. May asked each panelist, “Why is UCLA poised to be a leader in the national Cancer Moonshot initiative?” Dr. Slamon provided the concluding comment, saying, “You’ve heard from my colleagues how thinking out of the box is encouraged here, that we’re really pushed forward every day, that this community has been very generous to us with collaboration and support, and that has made this place magic. We can compare the impact that we’ve made on cancer here at UCLA to the impact of any institution in the country and the world, and that is why I think we all feel really good about being here and what we will soon achieve.”
For more information, contact Stephanie Witte at: (310) 206-3878
