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Vital Signs SUMMER 2015 | VOLUME 67 FEATURE STORIES Breast Cancer Page 4 Liver Damage Page 6 Q&A: New Leadership Page 8 Community Calendar Page 12 Shortage of Organs for Transplantation Requires that More Donors Step Forward Organ donation has been described as one of medicine’s greatest modern miracles — in many cases resulting in a long and healthy life for individuals who were near death. Each day in the United States, an average of 79 people receive life-saving transplants, according to federal statistics, but 21 others die while waiting for transplants that can’t take place because of the shortage of donated organs. Continued on page 7 Vital Signs SUMMER 2015 | VOLUME 67 UCLA Baby App The new UCLA Baby app lets a woman keep track of everything during her pregnancy, from counting kicks to tracking weight and timing contractions. After entering the baby’s due date, the app will In This Issue provide tips, weekly milestones, to-do checklists and introductions to the UCLA care team, as well What’s New at UCLA as recommend tests and guides to classes, online 2 support groups and breastfeeding information. In Your Community The app is available for both the iPhone and Android. 3 UCLA offers services and support near you. For more information, go to: Breast Cancer uclahealth.org/babyapp 4 New therapies improve outlook for women with advanced breast cancer. Liver Damage 6 Overuse of some nonprescription pain relievers and nutritional supplements Online Access 24/7 causes potential harm to liver. With myUCLAhealth, UCLA Health’s 7 Organ Transplant online patient portal, patients can request For organ transplantation to truly be appointments, view their medical history and successful, potential donors need to most test results, request prescription refills indicate their willingness to give. and communicate electronically with their Q&A: UCLA Health Leadership medical team. Patients may also designate a 8 Dr. John Mazziotta assumes new surrogate, such as an adult or child, to access roles as CEO of UCLA Health and their account. If you haven’t already signed up dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. for myUCLAhealth, you will receive an access code during your next doctor’s or hospital Children with Facial Deformities visit. Help with setting up myUCLAhealth 10 Coordinated care among different account is available 24/7; call (855) 364-7052. specialties is essential to achieve the best outcomes. For more information, go to: uclahealth.org/myuclahealth Caffeine and Exercise 11 Moderate coffee consumption can help to propel your workout and increase weight loss. Community Calendar 1 2 Health and wellness for the community. Get the Care You Need, Right Away UCLA Health now offers same-day appointments, in 27 specialties, Monday through Friday. In most cases, depending on the level of care you need and the time of day when you call, you’ll be seen by a physician that day. Calls before noon will be offered same-day appointments; calls after noon will be offered next-day appointments. To make a same-day appointment, call 1-800-UCLA-MD1 For more information, go to: uclahealth.org/sameday UCLAHEALTH.ORG 1-800-UCLA-MD1 (1-800-825-2631) HEAD AND NECK Head and Neck Office Opens in Santa Monica The new office combines state-of-the-art technology, world-class expertise and research-supported patient care with the convenience associated with community offices. UCLA physicians see patients of all ages “Patients are able to see the same faculty and with all types of disorders of the head members who practice in Westwood, but and neck. These conditions involve a wide with the convenience of being closer.” range of concerns — from ear and sinus The office, which includes pediatric infections to associated hearing problems, otolaryngologist Alisha West, MD, and UCLA Head and Neck tonsil-related disorders, problems involving otolaryngologist Paul Kedeshian, MD, is in Santa Monica snoring, and thyroid disease. The medical part of the UCLA Head and Neck Cancer team also treats trauma to the facial bones Program, which provides comprehensive, 1131 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 302 and voice disorders. Head and neck cancers personalized care for benign and malignant Santa Monica, CA 90401 are also evaluated and treated. tumors of the head and neck. The head and Mon – Fri, 8 am – 5 pm In addition to office visits at the new facility, neck consultation clinic in Westwood sees head and neck physicians perform most more than 50,000 patient visits each year. (424) 259-6559 procedures at the nearby UCLA outpatient The UCLA Voice Center for Medicine and surgery center. Same-day appointments are the Arts, also in Westwood, sees patients UCLA Head and Neck available for patients who need them. with voice problems ranging from benign disorders, such as vocal nodules, polyps “This office offers the best of both worlds in Westwood and papillomas, to more complex disorders, for the Santa Monica community,” such as spasmodic dysphonia, airway Peter Morton Medical Building says Eddie Ramirez, MD, FACS, an stenosis and laryngeal cancer. otolaryngologist who sees children and 200 UCLA Medical Plaza, Suite 550 adults with conditions of the head and neck. Los Angeles, CA 90095 Mon – Fri, 7:30 am – 5:30 pm (310) 206-6688 UCLA Voice Center for Medicine and the Arts 924 Westwood Blvd., No. 515 Los Angeles, CA 90024 Mon – Fri, 8:30 am – 5:30 pm (310) 794-8634 Eddie Ramirez, MD, FACS Vital Signs Summer 2015 Vol. 67 3 ONCOLOGY New Treatment Option for Women with Advanced Breast Cancer omen diagnosed with one of the Comprehensive Cancer Center. “For many Wmost common types of breast cancer years, people have been trying to target these now have an additional medication to help CDK4/6 receptors. What we have been able fight the disease. The U.S. Food and Drug to do is identify a type of cancer that might Administration (FDA) recently approved benefit from CDK4/6 inhibition.” palbociclib (Ibrance) for postmenopausal Palbociclib is used in combination with patients with breast cancer that has spread letrozole, a medication used to treat this to other areas of the body. type of breast cancer in postmenopausal The medication is aimed at women with a women. In the clinical trial, participants type of breast cancer known as estrogen treated with palbociclib plus letrozole lived receptor-positive/HER2-negative (ER+/ about 20 months without their disease HER2-). The ER+/HER2- subgroup progressing, compared to about 10 months represents about 60 percent of breast-cancer in participants receiving only letrozole. More cases, “so we believe this agent can have a than 80 percent of the patients in the study great impact,” says Dennis Slamon, MD, PhD, received some benefit from this treatment. director of the Revlon/UCLA Women’s In April 2013, the FDA granted the drug Cancer Research Program and Clinical/ “breakthrough therapy” status, allowing it Translational Research at UCLA’s Jonsson to be fast-tracked to early approval. Comprehensive Cancer Center. “I believe palbociclib will now become The medication represents a new strategy in a standard treatment approach for treating breast cancer. It’s the first in a class postmenopausal women with ER+/HER2- of medications that target proteins called metastatic breast cancer,” Dr. Slamon says. cyclin-dependent kinases 4 and 6 (CDK4/6). The drug did cause a decrease in infection- These proteins allow cancer cells to divide, fighting white blood cells. But that side effect but palbociclib disrupts them. Researchers is manageable, Dr. Finn says. “So much have known about these proteins for many cancer research is just hit and miss. You do years, but it was unclear who might be helped a study and hope to get something,” he says. by drugs that disrupted the proteins. In “This clinical study was based on a very studies that began in 2007, UCLA scientists strong scientific rationale. It wasn’t random. demonstrated that women with estrogen That is why we saw positive results. This type receptor-positive breast cancer could benefit of result is not often seen in cancer medicine.” from drugs that addressed CDK4/6. CDK4/6 medications are under investigation “Cell division is not well controlled; that’s for other types of cancers, Dr. Finn says. one of the hallmarks of cancer,” says Richard Finn, MD, of UCLA’s Jonsson To view a video about treatment options for women with breast cancer, go to: uclahealth.org/treatmentoptions UCLAHEALTH.ORG 1-800-UCLA-MD1 (1-800-825-2631) Breast Cancer Myth&Fact “IfIfindalumpinmybreast, Ihavecancer.” 80% of lumps in women’s breasts are caused by benign changes, cysts or other conditions. “I’mtooyoungtoget breastcancer.” 25% of women with breast cancer are younger than 50 years old. “Onlywomenwithafamily historyofbreastcancer areatrisk.” 80% of women diagnosed with breast cancer have no identifiable risk factors for the disease. “Mencan’tgetbreastcancer.” Approximately 1,700 men will be diagnosed annually with breast cancer and 450 will die. “ This clinical study was based on a very strong “Amammogramcancause breastcancertospread.” scientific rationale. It wasn’t random. That is Radiation doses are regulated by why we saw positive results. This type of result the FDA and are low — equivalent is not often seen in cancer medicine.” of the amount the average person receives from their surrounding environment over three months. Vital Signs Summer 2015 Vol. 67 5 GASTROENTEROLOGY Nonprescription Supplements and Pain Relievers Contribute to Liver Damage The overuse of nutritional supplements and nonprescription pain relievers like acetaminophen is contributing to a growing incidence of serious liver damage caused by these chemical agents, a condition known as hepatotoxicity. “A patient has a medical or dental procedure increased fivefold in the last decade. “We’re and afterward has a lot of pain, so he or she now starting to see the effects,” he says.