Being diagnosed with a urologic cancer – whether prostate, bladder, kidney or testicular cancer - is often the beginning of a stressful and confusing time in a person's life. Obtaining information about treatment options can often help reduce this stress. The UCLA Institute of Urologic Oncology (the "IUO") is here to help guide you through this unsettling time in your life.
The IUO was developed to bring together world-renown physicians and scientists from the UCLA Departments of Urologic Oncology, Medical Oncology, Radiation Oncology, Pathology and Radiology, to work together as a team to personalize patient care and to develop state-of-the-art technologies and revolutionary.
“The UCLA Institute of Urologic Oncology is leading medicine into a new era of patient- centered care,” says UCLA Chancellor Gene Block. “This commitment to improving the experience of patients by bringing together all of the specialists they need represents an important step forward for urologic cancer patients, as well as a model for all of medicine.” —Gene Block, Chancellor UCLA
The IUO, virtually established in 2008, moved into its state-of-the-art and architecturally significant facility in the Edie & Lew Wasserman Building in 2015. The IUO’s centralized structure was developed to provide our patients with convenient interdisciplinary care (sequential appointments on the same day with providers from two disciplines) as well as multi-disciplinary care in a single appointment.
Prostate, kidney, bladder and testicular cancers strike nearly 350,000 Americans each year and lead to approximately 50,000 deaths, according to the American Cancer Society’s most recent statistics. The IUO harnesses the collective expertise and wisdom of specialists in urologic and medical oncology, diagnostic and interventional radiology, pathology, nursing, basic sciences and clinical trials to treat these cancers.
Personalization
The IUO focuses the comprehensive resources available at UCLA on personalized, patient-centered treatment of urologic cancers and the development and delivery of new therapies. Patients can conveniently access the various specialists involved in their care, thereby simplifying the decision-making process for preferred treatment and improving their overall medical care.
Integration
This integrated approach allows experts from related disciplines to collaborate more efficiently and effectively to bring to patients the most promising advances in disease-centered, multi-specialty diagnosis and medical and surgical treatments-including molecular pathology, targeted therapies, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, radiation therapy, and minimally invasive and ablative surgery.
Innovation
UCLA has been a pioneer in the multidisciplinary, translational approach to care, including targeted therapies; the development of novel, minimally invasive cancer surgeries and reconstructive surgical techniques offering improved quality of life; and the development of molecularly targeted drugs. Avastin, Sutent, Nexavar, Toricel, Afinitor, Abiraterone, MDR 3100, Herceptin, and Gleevec, among others, were developed in large part based on research conducted in the clinics and laboratories of UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. Such leading-edge work to develop new, personalized, less toxic, and more-effective therapies for urologic cancers is being done within the IUO.
Expertise
UCLA’s specialists in urologic and medical oncology, diagnostic and interventional radiology, pathology, nursing, basic sciences, and clinical trials bring to the forefront of patient care advances in the most innovative and integrated approaches to the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of urologic cancers. Patients benefit from the combined experience of these doctors, who often treat the most complicated urologic cancer cases.
