Susan Desmond-Hellmann: FORBES Most Powerful Innovator

UCSF’s Chancellor, Susan Desmond-Hellmann, MD, MPH,  was selected by FORBES as one of its 7 Most Powerful Innovators of 2009. You can read the story here. According to the article, Desmond-Hellmann’s  most influential innovations were  the blockbuster cancer drugs Avastin and Herceptin.

Susan Desmond-Hellmann, a physician and cancer researcher, is a hero to legions of cancer patients. While president of product development at Genentech from 2004 to April 2009, she played an integral role in the selection, testing and development of Avastin, a colon cancer drug with annual sales of $9 billion, and Herceptin, a breast cancer drug with sales of $7.8 billion. In August 2009 she became the chancellor of UCSF, a powerhouse in medical research, where she aims to continue fostering innovation in health care and science.

Why Global Health Matters to California

Innovation and Healthcare Reform

UCSF Chancellor’s First Town Hall Address

UCSF’s Elizabeth Blackburn Wins Nobel Prize in Medicine

UCSF’s Elizabeth Blackburn joins an elite group of women scientists that has received the Nobel Prize in Medicine. Her award brings the number of female recipients to 10, out of a total of 195 scientists who have received the award since it was established in 1901. Watch the video of today’s Nobel press conference:

I-Spy Trial Offers Key Insights Into Locally Advanced Breast Cancer

Dr. Laura Esserman, director of UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Breast Care Center is spearheading the development of a clinical trials model designed to accelerate and improve the efficiency with which experimental breast cancer therapies are assessed.  The strategy, which involves the use of molecular markers and MRI, utilizes “adaptive design,” in which drugs are assessed over the course of months – rather than decades – and the information used in real time to direct the course of a trial.

The series of studies are known as I-SPY (investigation of serial studies to predict therapeutic response with imaging and molecular analysis) and are being carried out  in patients with locally advanced i.e., aggressive – breast cancer. The goals of I-SPY  are to establish a clinical trials model that supports the identification of drugs targeting the molecular profiles of aggressive cancers, and to reduce the duration of the drug-assessment process from the current 15 to 20 years down to a few years.

Dr. Esserman’s team presents several findings at ASCO today.  One provocative finding shows that large, locally advanced forms of breast cancer often emerge between regular mammogram exams. These “interval” cancers present an important opportunity for doctors and patients to take advantage of neoadjuvant therapies in advance of surgery, with the hope they would be responsive. The other finding is that using molecular markers, UCSF researchers identified a subset of patients who do well regardless of how they respond to neoadjuvant treatment. They also identified a subset  with poor prognosis for whom response to neoadjuvant therapy is a good predictor of long term outcome.

Read the press release:

Susan Desmond-Hellmann Named UCSF Chancellor

Susan Desmond-Hellmann, one of FORTUNE’s Most Powerful Women in Business, will become the first woman to serve as UCSF chancellor. The appointment, unanimously approved by the UC Board of Regents today, takes effect August 3, 2009.

Desmond-Hellmann, 51, brings a deep clinical, research, and executive leadership background and commitment to high-quality patient care to the position of UCSF chancellor.  She is a board-certified physician in internal medicine and medical oncology who has dedicated much of her career to cancer research.  She was with South San Francisco-based Genentech for 14 years – as clinical scientist, chief medical officer, executive vice president and president – where she has overseen successful trials for therapeutic drugs, including Herceptin, Avastin and Rituxan, targeting a range of cancers and other diseases. Says Desmond-Hellman:

I began my career at UCSF, and my heart has never left it..My life’s work has been focused on making a difference for patients, and I cannot think of a better place than UCSF to carry that work forward.  As the health needs of the world continue to change, UCSF will continue to play a pivotal role in developing solutions through its research, teaching and clinical care across all the health disciplines.

How to “Redirect” an Alzheimer’s Patient: Caregiver Tips

How do you “redirect” a dementia patient who wants to “go home” or  speak to someone who is no longer alive? How do you respond to a loved one who is living in a reality which isn’t yours? Here are a few tips that I posted yesterday on  Defeat Dementia, a Facebook group which provides information and support to caregivers of dementia patients:

• Don’t worry about convincing her that her loved one has already passed away, but to pay attention to the emotion she is expressing.

• Sometimes it is helpful to encourage the patient to talk about her loved one. Try questions like “what did you do with your (mom) when you were little?”, “What do you want to say to your (mom)?”

• Perhaps having a photo of her loved one available that you can look at together, ask her to tell a story about her loved one, might be strategies that would satisfy her.

• If necessary, some caregivers have tried a white lie, like “Your (mother) lives someplace else now.” or “I can’t take you there today. Maybe tomorrow.”

• It’s helpful to try to stay in the patient’s reality, and the death of her loved one is no longer a part of her reality, so saying her (mother) is dead only confuses her.

Source: UCSF Memory and Aging Center

For more information, visit the Defeat Dementia website, join our Facebook Group, visit the UCSF Memory and Aging Channel on YouTube, or check out UCSF’s Memory and Aging Center website.

New Theory About the Cause of Alzheimer’s Disease – a Prenatal Link?

New research at Genentech provides a provocative theory about the cause of Alzheimer’s disease and   suggests potential new targets for therapies to treat it, reports Ron Winslow in the February 19 issue of the Wall Street Journal.

The prevailing view about what causes Alzheimer’s disease is that  deposits called beta amyloid accumulate in the brain, destroying nerve cells and ultimately, the patient’s memory.  Now, new research shows there’s a very different way of looking at the disease.

The Genentech/Salk Institute team of researchers propose that a normal process in which excess nerve cells and nerve fibers are pruned from the brain during prenatal development is somehow reactivated in the adult brain and “hijacked” to cause the death of such cells in Alzheimer’s patients, writes Winslow.

According to Marc Tessier-Lavigne, executive vice president, research drug discovery at Genentech, the new findings offer evidence that “Alzheimer’s is not just bad luck, but rather it is the activation of a pathway that is there for development purposes.”

Genentech has identified potential drug candidates based on the findings and says that it may take many years for any potential treatment to be developed.

The research was published Thursday in the journal Nature.

NOTE: The photos of normal and dead nerve fibers above are from Dr. Tessier-Lavigne.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer

Associated Press’  Lauran Neergaard reports today that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been diagnosed with early stage pancreatic cancer.  She had surgery at Memorial Sloan- Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.

In 1999, Ginsburg had surgery for colon cancer and had chemotherapy and radiation treatment. The new cancer was discovered during a routine, annual exam late last month at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md.

A CAT scan revealed a tumor measuring about 1 centimeter across at the center of the pancreas, the court said.

Ginsburg had recently told her former law clerks and others that she envisioned serving on the court into her 80s, although those comments were made before the latest diagnosis.

In her previous bout with cancer, Ginsburg received treatment throughout the court’s term and never missed a day on the bench.

The justices hold their next private conference on Feb. 20 and return to the bench from their winter break on Feb. 23.

The court’s announcement offered few details about the surgery.

Pancreatic cancer is the fourth most common cause of cancer death in the United States. It is a silent killer, as its symptoms are so insidious that most people are not diagnosed until the disease has advanced beyond the stage where surgical resection is possible. Even among surgical candidates, removal of the diseased pancreas and surrounding tissues is rarely curative.

For more on the latest cancer research, visit Science Cafe.