Synthesis is published by the UC Davis Cancer Center. If you SYNTHESIS receive multiple copies of this publication, please share them. VOLUME 9 • NUMBER 1 If you need to change your mailing address, please call the Cancer Center administration office at (916) 734-5800. c o n t e n t s Ralph deVere White Director UC Davis Cancer Center 2

cover story Carol Gan 2 Center stage Executive Editor blocks for a new team Claudia Morain 6 Capital initiative Editor launched Pat Grind $35 million drive will Art Director 6 expand clinics, endow research

Circle Design Graphic Design i n 10 Building an arsenal translation A new weapon against Bill Santos advanced prostate cancer? José Luis Villegas Photographers F o c U S o n 14 Fight club Beth Ellenberger 14 P a t i e n t s Lung cancer patients make Cory Golden themselves more visible Camille Rey Writers o u t r e a c h 22 Mothers’ wisdom About the cover: American Indian women break Pro Football Hall of Fame Center their silence about breast cancer Jim Otto is the volunteer chair of a $35 million capital initiative to 22 B u i l d i n g o n 26 On target expand UC Davis Cancer Center and B a s i c s endow eight cancer research chairs. Treating cancer (See story on page 2.) with tomotherapy

b e n e f a c t o r s 30 They think pink South Placer County’s $1.5 million pledge 30

n e w s 33 In brief The University of does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, Living strong, welcome national origin, religion, sex, sexual findings for pregnant women orientation, disability, age, veteran’s status, medical condition, ancestry or with thyroid cancer, marital status. The University of and other news California is an affirmative action/ equal opportunity employer. Call (530) 752-2071 for more information. Speech or hearing impaired persons may call (530) 752-7320 (TDD).

SPRING/SUMMER 2006   Jim & Sally Otto

  SYNTHESIS cover story CENTER STAGE Jim Otto, chair of the UC Davis Cancer Center’s Capital and Endowment Initiative, is blocking for a new team

No sport requires more children in the pediatric ward, teamwork than football, and and, well, that eats your heart in a game in which sacrifice is out. Something has to be done.” fundamental, there is no better teammate than Jim Otto. A personal vendetta NThese days, the legendary Double-O has declared a Oakland Raiders center doesn’t “personal vendetta” against block so that star quarterbacks cancer. And the disease has a like or Ken formidable new enemy. Stabler can complete passes in In his playing days, Otto front of 60,000 cheering fans. liked to hit. Hard. Back when He doesn’t punch holes in the he wore 00 for the Oakland lines of 275-pound defenders so Raiders, he built a reputation that running backs like Clem for toughness that took him to Daniels or Marv Hubbard can “Jim has the Pro Football Hall of Fame. grind out a few more yards in During his 15 years with the the team’s march downfield. joined this Oakland franchise, he started in Now Otto is at the center 210 consecutive regular-season of a drive of a different type. fight because games, a record that stands to Following treatment for prostate J this day. cancer at UC Davis Cancer he loves life.” A football team cannot Center, the Auburn resident function, let alone win, without agreed to chair the center’s $35 the center – the man who million Capital and Endowment snaps the ball and prevents the Initiative. hulking defensive linemen from “I would just love to see smothering the quarterback. more people being saved and In a 1990 column, Jim being cured from cancer,” Otto Murray, the late Times said. “That’s why I’m doing this. sportswriter, wrote in praise of You don’t want anyone else to the center generally, and Otto have to go through the agony in particular: “You can almost that comes along with a cancer always tell a center. He’s the one diagnosis and cancer treatment. who’s got this little cut on the Especially kids. I’ve visited the bridge of his nose from getting

SPRING/SUMMER 2006   Widely regarded as the best center ever to play the game, Jim Otto was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1980. He and his wife, Sally, now live in Auburn.

his helmet slammed down on it by a charging nose tackle.” And he quoted Otto: “You have to be a special kind of person … You have to kind of like pain.” Against the in II in 1968, Otto persevered despite a case of double pneumonia, a dislocated knee, broken fingers and a broken jaw. He was named All- Pro after playing a full season with every ligament torn in one knee. He was the starting center, and the team needed him. “We have a champion in charge of our initiative,” said Ralph deVere White, director of the UC Davis Cancer and associate dean for cancer programs at UC Davis. “We’re fortunate and enormously grateful that Jim is on our team.”

Expecting to win Otto came of age in an era when teams stuck together. He was the Raiders’ only starting center from 1960 until 1974, the team’s glory years, when, in the words of Sacramento Bee sportswriter Ailene Voisin, “the Black Hole was a perilous pit, when the impassioned, often unruly fans resembled a cult following, when the Raiders always expected to win.”

  SYNTHESIS UC Davis Cancer Center Capital and Endowment Initiative Steering Committee Jim Otto, Chairman Susan Mathews

Loyalty was a virtue. It is a Ralph deVere White, M.D. William McGowan testament to Otto that more than Robert E. Chason Fred Meyers, M.D. 30 years after his retirement, his Burt Douglass Trong Nguyen teammates are still there for him. When Otto and his wife of Barbara Fingerut Aldo Pineschi 43 years, Sally, host their annual Carol Garcia Robyn Raphael “Take a Swing at Cancer” celebrity golf tournament James E. Goodnight, Sandy Smoley to benefit UC Davis Cancer M.D., Ph.D. Jeanine Stiles Center, some 30 of his fabled Gary Little teammates show up. The event, Virgil Traynor, D.V.M. held at the Auburn Valley Country Club, raises about $150,000 in a weekend. Otto says off handedly that he has who come to UC Davis Cancer Chester, a former Raider to place maybe 32 phone calls Center each year for cancer teammate and close Otto friend. to get 30 ex-Raiders to come. treatment. “When Jim Otto commits Ben Davidson, still sporting his “With Jim picking up the himself to something, he gives handlebar mustache, has shown gauntlet for UC Davis Cancer 110 percent. He absolutely up. So have Lincoln Kennedy, Center, the capital drive is walks his talk. He won’t stop , Willie Brown, assured victory,” said Raymond until he wins.” Daryle Lamonica, and many others.

Cancer is life-related On the day he completed prostate cancer treatment, Jim Otto arrived with jerseys and sweatshirts for his UC Davis Cancer Center team. Otto himself no longer golfs. He has undergone 52 major surgeries. He’s had 12 artificial knees and four artificial shoulders. His spine is supported by steel rods. But none of those health threats shook the Hall of Famer like prostate cancer. “His injuries and surgeries have all been football-related. Cancer is different. It’s life- related,” said Dave Newhouse, a veteran Oakland Tribune sportswriter who collaborated with Otto on his 2000 autobiography, “Jim Otto: Pain of Glory.” “This is about life. Jim has joined this fight because he loves life.” Double-O is back in the game, this time blocking for the 9,000 people, young and old,

SPRING/SUMMER 2006   UC Davis Cancer Center will nearly double to 109,000 square feet. Top left: The new complex viewed from 45th Street, with the existing Cancer Center on the right and the three-story addition on the left. Top right: A bridge and courtyard will connect the buildings. Center: Inside the new lobby. Bottom: The new complex as viewed from the north.

  SYNTHESIS cover story

UC Davis Cancer Center seeks community support to expand patient-care space and endow research Capital & Endowment Initiative LAUNCHED

UC Davis Cancer Center Halfway to has announced a $35-million the goal line Capital and Endowment The launch of the initiative’s Initiative, the first in its history, public phase comes five years to expand patient-care facilities after UC Davis Cancer Center Uand fund the university’s first began gathering a nucleus of chairs in cancer research. support from members of the “Sooner or later, cancer steering committee and other affects almost all of us generous contributors. So far, – and when it does, you want more than $16 million has a winning team on your side,” been pledged, including $1.3 said Jim Otto, chair of the million from steering committee initiative’s steering committee. members. Otto, a longtime center for the The many commitments to Oakland Raiders, was treated “The outlook the initiative include: for prostate cancer at UC Davis n $5 million from the in 2002. has never Oakland-based Wayne and “The money we are raising Gladys Valley Foundation. will allow UC Davis Cancer been more n $1 million from Susie Center to expand so that it T Mathews, a Sacramento can take care of the growing promising.” businesswoman, in honor numbers of patients who come of her late husband, Robert, here each year,” Otto said. “It who died of prostate cancer will also create endowments in 1987. that will give UC Davis Cancer n $100,000 from Burt Center the clout it needs to Douglass, a grateful patient. sign and keep the best scientists n in cancer research, so that $50,000 from the Keaton the next advances happen Raphael Memorial, to name the right here.” indoor play area in memory of Keaton, a 5-year-old Roseville boy who died of neuroblastoma eight years ago.

SPRING/SUMMER 2006   Meeting demand Capital initiative will help fund major expansion Outpatient visits at UC Davis Cancer Among the project’s features:

Center have grown by 50 percent over n A new Pediatric Hematology the past five years. Growth is projected to and Oncology Clinic with six exam continue to increase by at least 6 percent rooms, one consult room, reception and a year through 2009. waiting areas, and indoor and outdoor To meet this demand, the UC Davis play spaces

Cancer Center Capital and Endowment n A new Pediatric Infusion Clinic Initiative seeks to raise $25 million toward with 11 infusion stations and two a $35-million, three-story addition to the isolation rooms existing Cancer Center. Construction, n Adult Hematology expected to take two years, will begin An expanded and Oncology Clinic as soon as fundraising is completed. with 18 exam and The remaining $10 million cost will be procedure rooms and two consult rooms covered by UC Davis Health System n An expanded Adult Infusion Clinic reserves. This initiative also seeks to raise with 26 infusion stations, two private funds for endowed chairs. infusion rooms, two isolation rooms, and The expansion will make room for the a more spacious patient waiting area pediatric cancer program, now located n A 1,350-square-foot Infusion in other buildings on the medical center Pharmacy, 1,995-square-foot Clinical campus. The project will also expand Laboratory and 1,810-square-foot space for the adult clinic, adult infusion Outpatient Pharmacy center, pharmacy, clinical laboratory, and n Expanded administrative and resource center. shared common areas “There is an urgent need to complete The existing Cancer Center was completed this project because the existing Cancer in 1991 and originally contained 56,000 Center cannot support the increased square feet. In May 2005 the health numbers of patients who seek care here,” system completed a $10-million project that said Jeanine Stiles, associate director for added 7,000 square feet to the radiation administration at the Cancer Center. oncology clinic on the ground floor of the The 46,000-square-foot addition will go up Cancer Center (see story on page 27). along the north side of the existing 63,000- square-foot Cancer Center. The two structures will be connected by a bridge The expansion will make above a common courtyard. The expansion room for the 400 pediatric project will also remodel about 9,000 cancer patients treated at square feet of the existing Cancer Center. UC Davis Medical Center each year. The pediatric cancer program is now housed in other buildings on the medical campus.

  SYNTHESIS Seats of science Endowed chairs allow universities to reward and retain the best and brightest n $15,000 from John and Mary Endowed chairs, one of the highest honors in Arnaudo of Ripon to name a consultation room in honor academia, allow universities to retain and recruit the of their 9-year-old-daughter, best minds in each generation. The UC Davis Cancer Francesca, who recently Center’s Capital and Endowment Initiative is turning completed treatment for her to the community to help endow eight chairs, the first second form of cancer. at UC Davis that will focus on cancer research. UC Davis Cancer Center Endowments are sought to support top scientists in the diagnosed more than 2,000 new following areas of cancer research. Endowments range cases of cancer and cared for more from $1.5 to $3 million. than 9,000 children and adults with cancer last year. Patients n Basic Science Endowed Chair come to the region’s only National n Clinical Research Endowed Chair Cancer Institute-designated n Prostate Cancer Endowed Chair center from throughout the Central Valley, inland Northern n Breast Cancer Endowed Chair California, southern Oregon and n Lung Cancer Endowed Chair western Nevada. n Pediatric Cancer Endowed Chair In addition, UC Davis Cancer n Cancer Genetics Endowment Center unites 180 scientists at work on more than 300 n Cancer Immunology Endowment projects aimed at finding new Pledges to date treatments, diagnostic methods and prevention strategies for Commitments have been made to fund two of the chairs: adult and pediatric cancers. n The Auburn Community Cancer Endowment Fund, a Members of the UC Davis Cancer grassroots group based in Auburn, has raised $1.3 million Research Program come from toward the Basic Science Endowed Chair. In addition more than a dozen schools, to the more than $300,000 raised through the Jim Otto departments and divisions on golf tournaments, Jim Otto and his wife, Sally, already three campuses – the UC Davis generous supporters of the Cancer Center, have also main campus in Davis, the UC Davis Medical Center campus in pledged $75,000 to support the endowment. The chair will Sacramento and the Lawrence be named after the whole community. Livermore National Laboratory n The South Placer Breast Cancer Endowment, taking in Livermore. Auburn’s lead, has announced plans to fund the Breast “This Capital and Cancer Chair by 2010 (see story, page 34). Endowment Initiative takes place at a critical time, when Research endowments are invested to fund a designated developments both at UC research area in perpetuity. Chair holders draw from the Davis Cancer Center and in the interest generated by the endowment to hire research broader scientific community assistants, pay for travel to scientific meetings or cover have set the stage for rapid other research needs. progress against cancer,” said Ralph deVere White, director of the Cancer Center and assistant dean for cancer programs at UC For information about contributing to an endowed chair, Davis. “The outlook has never please contact Stephanie Bray at (916) 734-9675 or been more promising.” [email protected].

SPRING/SUMMER 2006   Hsing-Jien Kung

1 0  SYNTHESIS in translation

Hsing-Jien Kung and his colleagues discovered a signaling pathway needed by advanced prostate cancer cells — will a new drug block that path? Building an ARSENAL

Soon, about 76 volunteers, men Bench to bedside with advanced prostate cancer, The drug’s development is a will have the opportunity to model of “bench-to-bedside” try an investigational drug research, science focused on known as AZD0530. The drug making discoveries that lead Sis a targeted agent designed to to new treatments for patients. block a molecule known as src, Since joining UC Davis in pronounced “sark.” If the drug 1998 as deputy director of the slows or halts the volunteers’ UC Davis Cancer Center and disease, it may become the first director of its basic science effective therapy for hormone- program, Kung has built the resistant prostate cancer cancer research program into – an advanced form of the UC Davis an efficient engine for delivering illness that doesn’t respond to such cancer treatment advances. currently available treatments. Cancer Besides AZD0530, UC Davis Men will have Hsing-Jien investigators have also been Kung and his team to thank. instrumental in developing UCenter will novel drugs for leukemia, First to clone src lymphoma, breast, brain and Together with Don Fujita of the lead the first ovarian cancers. Several of University of Calgary, Kung was these agents have reached the first scientist to clone the clinical trial of early clinical trials – the final human src gene. At UC Davis, stages of a long and careful Kung and collaborator Chris the drug cancer research process in Evans were the first to show which promising approaches in cell lines and laboratory in prostate to cancer prevention, diagnosis animals that inhibiting src can and treatment are first tested in thwart hormone resistance in patients. prostate cancer. When the drug cancer “No one drug will be a cure- maker Astra Zeneca developed all. Cancer is too complicated AZD0530, the National Cancer patients. for that,” Kung said. “But our Institute selected UC Davis to hope is to develop an arsenal lead the initial clinical trial of the of targeted therapies doctors drug in prostate cancer patients.

SPRING/SUMMER 2006  1 1 In Kung’s lab, scientists work to develop an arsenal of targeted therapies for prostate and other cancers.

can select from, tailored to an molecular “pathways” for brilliant scientists at work on individual patient’s specific survival when they are deprived cancer. From his post-doctorate tumor. The goal is to make of androgen. Kung has spent years in the lab of J. Michel cancer a treatable, chronic the past decade identifying and Bishop and Harold E. Varmus, illness – and we’re getting closer mapping the pathways used by who shared the 1989 Nobel to that goal every day.” tyrosine kinases, a family of Prize in Medicine for their some 90 proteins that serve as a discovery of oncogenes, Kung Hormone resistance cell’s accelerators. In cancer, one has progressively zeroed in on Prostate cancer cells start out or more accelerators gets stuck prostate cancer. dependent for their survival on in the “on” position. Kung’s lab today, on the male hormones, or androgens. Kung has been aided in second floor of Research III, Even in advanced cases where his search by a rapid display down the road from the UC surgery and radiation are no method his lab developed, a tool Davis Cancer Center, hums longer an option, hormonal that allows scientists to quickly with the work of his own therapy that suppresses a identify all of the tyrosine post-doctoral researchers. In patient’s androgen production kinases in a particular tumor. addition, Kung coordinates can control the disease, often With it, Kung and his team were the cancer investigations of for many years. able to identify key tyrosine scientists on three campuses But given enough time, the kinases involved in prostate – the UC Davis main campus malignant cells learn to live cancer, and to isolate several new in Davis, the UC Davis Medical without androgen – and patients ones – among them src’s partner, Center campus in Sacramento and their doctors run out of etk, which is also favored by and the Lawrence Livermore treatment options. androgen-independent prostate National Laboratory in “Androgen-independence cancer cells. Livermore. is the problem in prostate The src-inhibitor AZD0530 cancer,” said Kung, a professor stems from that work. $64 million budget of biological chemistry. “That’s On his watch, the cancer where the mortality and the Inspired research center’s research budget has trouble begin.” Kung’s inspired, elegant exceeded $64.4 million, the In the jargon of biochemists, research has earned him a research program has grown to prostate cancers find new reputation as one of the most 180 scientists and the Cancer

1 2  SYNTHESIS Anthony Martinez, a research associate in Kung’s lab, is part of a team at work on a molecularly targeted agent designed to thwart androgen resistance in prostate cancer by cutting off the etk pathway. Unlike traditional chemotherapy drugs, molecularly targeted agents usually have few side effects.

Center has become the nation’s led by Evans, who chairs the and reveal a tumor’s specific 61st National Cancer Institute- Department of Urology, and kinase activation profile. If a designated cancer center. Primo N. Lara, Jr., an associate certain kinase has elevated “Hsing-Jien Kung’s work professor of hematology and activity, a specific inhibitor will has elevated prostate cancer to oncology. be given. There would be no a level of elegance that didn’t Kung cautions against biopsy, no surgery, no radiation exist before he became involved excessive optimism. He says and, because the drug is so in it,” said Ralph deVere White, it’s unlikely that blocking a highly targeted, very few side professor of urology, director single tyrosine kinase will be effects. of the UC Davis Cancer Center sufficient to control prostate Just imagine. and associate dean for cancer cancer. More likely, doctors programs. will need an arsenal of kinase “But he is more than any inhibitors that can be used in one thing. His brilliance is combination or in succession. his depth and breadth and Kung and Kit Lam, professor the quality of his scientific and chief of hematology and interactions.” oncology, are at work now on an To learn more about clincial trials inhibitor for etk. at UC Davis Cancer Center, visit Cautious optimism But Kung envisions a day in www.ucdaviscancerclinicaltrials.org the not-too-distant future when The AZD0530 clinical trial or call (530) 734-3089. will begin after the NCI has tiny fluorescence-tagged kinase completed its review of the markers, injected into a patient, study design. The trial will be will light up on imaging studies

SPRING/SUMMER 2006  1 3 Carol and Dennis Sill

1 4  SYNTHESIS f o c u s o n p a t i e n t s

FIGHT CLUB Invisible no more

When Carol Sill learned she had “Invisible like us” lung cancer in November 2004, Lung cancer is the No. 1 cancer she and her husband, Dennis, killer in the United States, but it searched the Web for a support lags far behind breast and prostate group near their Sacramento cancer in terms of public attention. Whome. They called the American At one recent meeting of the Cancer Society. They checked support group Sill established, with the American Lung a woman talked about ribbons. Association. Nothing. Breast cancer has a pink ribbon; “If I had breast cancer, I’d prostate cancer’s is blue. The lung be able to choose from literally cancer ribbon is clear, she had dozens of support groups and discovered. “Invisible. Like us,” help lines right in our area. she told the group. But there was nothing for lung That’s changing. ABC cancer,” Sill said. ”’Did you anchorman Peter Jenning’s death Now there is. Determined to from lung cancer last August reverse the stigma she believes smoke?‘ put the disease in the headlines. has kept lung cancer patients from That same month Dana Reeve, stepping forward and seeking the It’s the first widow of actor Christopher help they need, Sill went to work. D Reeve, confirmed her lung She founded a support group that question cancer diagnosis, helping to raise meets at UC Davis Cancer Center awareness that lung cancer is under the leadership of Cancer increasingly a disease of younger Center social worker Carolyn everyone women who have never smoked. Guadagnolo. Sill also forged ties She died of the disease March 6. with the Gail P. Ramos Lung asks when “Twenty years ago, the typical Cancer Foundation in Fairfield, lung cancer patient was an older to help that group expand its they learn man who had a smoking history,” fundraising efforts for lung cancer said David Gandara, director of research in Sacramento. During I have lung the Thoracic Oncology Program National Lung Cancer Awareness at UC Davis Cancer Center. “But Month in November, she told her cancer.” lung cancer rates for men are story to the Sacramento Bee and the down, while they are climbing regional ABC and NBC affiliates. in women. And in my clinic,

SPRING/SUMMER 2006  1 5 Our Team UC Davis Thoracic Oncology Program more than one-third of our lung cancer patients are never-smokers Among the largest and most – individuals who have smoked fewer comprehensive of its kind, the than 100 cigarettes in their lifetime.” Thoracic Oncology Program at UC Davis Cancer Center Improving treatment provides a wide array of clinical Treatments are also changing. Last and research services for year, a Southwest Oncology Group patients with lung cancer and study led by Gandara demonstrated other thoracic malignancies. the best long-term survival rates yet reported in patients with locally The program includes nationally David Gandara with radiation advanced, non-small cell lung cancer. oncologist Zelanna Goldberg prominent clinicians and Another study, co-authored by researchers from multiple Gandara, showed that administering disciplines who meet weekly to develop individualized treatment chemotherapy after surgery can plans for each patient. The team includes medical oncologists, boost five-year survival for patients thoracic surgeons, pulmonologists, radiation oncologists, nuclear with early stage, completely resected medicine specialists and radiologists. Every patient’s clinical non-small cell lung cancer tumors to history and medical record, including PET scans, CT scans more than 60 percent. Both studies and other imaging studies, are reviewed by this team before made national headlines. treatment recommendations are made. The team is rounded Newer drugs are targeting out by nurses with advanced training in thoracic oncology, tumors in more specific ways. Half a dozen of these molecularly targeted dietitians, social workers and clinical research associates. agents are being evaluated at UC In addition, UC Davis Cancer Center offers clinical trials for Davis Cancer Center right now. UC almost every situation and stage of lung cancer. The therapies Davis researchers are also looking evaluated in these trials often become the recognized standards for clues that will let doctors better of care nationally and internationally. determine which patients will The Thoracic Oncology Program is headed by David R. respond to which targeted agents, Gandara, a professor of hematology and oncology and and are studying new methods of associate director for clinical research at UC Davis Cancer preventing lung cancer recurrence. Center. Gandara is co-chair of the National Cancer Institute’s Tahoe to Turlock Investigational Drug Steering Committee, which is charged In its first three months, Sacramento’s with recommending reforms in the way cancer clinical trials are first lung cancer support group has conducted in the United States. He also chairs the Southwest grown to 60 members. Meetings are Oncology Group’s Lung Committee, overseeing thoracic cancer- held on Wednesdays to coincide with related clinical trials at 283 institutions throughout the United the Cancer Center’s multidisciplinary States and Canada. He is a co-founder of the California Cancer lung clinic and Thoracic Tumor Consortium, which coordinates early phase clinical trials at four Board. Patients from as far away as institutions in California and Pennsylvania. Palo Alto, Tahoe and Turlock attend, often because no lung cancer support group is available closer to home. In the pages ahead, five members of the support group talk For more information about the Thoracic Oncology Program about the stigma attached to lung at UC Davis Cancer Center, please call (916) 734-8500 or cancer, the need for more research visit our Web site, www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/cancer. funding, the importance of support, and their hopes for the future.

1 6  SYNTHESIS FIGHTMIMI ARF INCLUB “Did you smoke?” It’s the first question everyone asks when they learn I have lung cancer. I think non-smokers ask because they hope I’ll say yes, so they can feel safe. But none of us is “safe.” I was about to celebrate my 30th anniversary of being treated for and cured of Hodgkin’s disease in April 2005, when I was diagnosed with lung cancer. I was shocked. I’ve never smoked. I eat well. I work out. I’m 49 years old, an attorney, and the mother of two young daughters. After that initial shock, my husband, Bob, and I went to work researching our options. I chose to enroll in a clinical trial at UC Davis of a new molecularly targeted agent, Erbitux, in combination with standard chemotherapy.

Partial remission Bob and I drive from the Bay Area to Sacramento every few weeks for treatments. My last PET/CT scan, in January, showed my cancer is in partial remission. There are no new tumors and those that showed up on the scan were stable or receding. Our hope is to “If more people realized nonsmokers get this illness, perhaps there would stay close to the cutting edge be more support for research,” says Mimi Arfin, shown with her daughters. of research so that we can continue to take advantage of because smoking is a modifiable behaviors can contribute new treatments like Erbitux as behavior, it engenders less to heart attacks, but people they are developed. sympathy than breast or who have heart attacks aren’t These advances might occur prostate cancer. The stigma is blamed for their heart disease. more rapidly without the stigma unfair to lung cancer patients Perhaps if more people realized attached to lung cancer. Because like me who have never smoked, nonsmokers also get this illness, people regard lung cancer but it’s also unfair to patients there would be more support as a disease of smokers, and who were smokers. Modifiable for research to find a cure.

SPRING/SUMMER 2006  1 7 FIGHTANGIE LEE- CLUBOW my father was a heavy smoker, to call me, comfort me and Nothing could have prepared I had not been exposed to help me make a decision about me for the diagnosis of lung secondhand smoke for more participating in a clinical trial at cancer last May. I had worked for than 35 years. UC Davis. almost 30 years as a pharmacist, For two weeks following my I’ll always be grateful to her most of them at UC Davis diagnosis, I couldn’t find anyone for making that call. Today, I Medical Center. But everything to talk with who was a lung have had a good response to I knew about diseases and cancer survivor, who could help chemotherapy and cetuximab, pharmacology went out the me sort through my shock and a non-FDA approved therapy window when the tables turned fear of what was in store. But God for lung cancer, and continue to and I became the patient. sent an angel in the form of Carol participate in the study. My diagnosis was baffling. I Sill, a six-month Stage IV lung Legacy, our UC Davis-based had never smoked and although cancer survivor, who was willing lung cancer support group, has encouraged me and given me “I am prepared to live each day with hope, joy hope and a sense of caring that and thanksgiving,” Angie Lee-Ow says. only other survivors can offer. At our meetings, I have learned that twice as many women die from lung cancer than from breast cancer. I have learned that less than $2,000 per lung cancer death is spent on lung cancer research versus $18,000 per breast cancer death.

Stronger than cancer Through Legacy, we want to be available to talk to any newly diagnosed lung cancer patient who needs that special call of reassurance and hope. We want to be the forum for the many survivors needing understanding and support as they battle this deadly disease. With the love and support of my husband, the encouragement and care I’ve received at UC Davis Cancer Center, the friends we have made in Legacy, the love of a close family, friends and most importantly to us, the many prayers on my behalf, I am prepared to be stronger than cancer, to fight a good fight and live each day with hope, joy and thanksgiving.

1 8  SYNTHESIS FIGHTmaxine CLUB My name is Maxine. I am a four-year lung cancer survivor. My doctor once told me I was a member of a very select group – lung cancer survivors. Most of us don’t live very long past our diagnosis, especially those of us who have some of the more serious lung cancers. Mine was non-small cell bronchioalveolar carcinoma, one of the nastier ones, with a very high recurrence rate. The very good thing about my cancer is that it was Stage IB, rather early on in the process. It was discovered during a routine chest X-ray and physical checkup for work, and had remained localized, so that the surgeon was able to remove the upper half of my left lung, where the 2-centimeter mass was located. The mass had not spread beyond the lung wall. No lymph nodes, thankfully, were involved.

Anxiety and gratitude The consulting oncologist told me that radiation and chemotherapy following surgery are not required for Stage I cancers, so the surgery and long recovery period I was to face were the extent of my treatment, except for the follow-up visits every three months. I generally get quite anxious as CT scan time approaches. A four-year survivor, Maxine relishes travel, theater, art and grandchildren. Waiting those few days between taking the scan and getting the them before for their tender, environmental scientist and results, the bane of the cancer loving care, I am doing it now. busier-than-ever world traveler, survivor, can seem like an Many of my dearest friends from college student, mother of five, eternity. as far south as Glendale called grandmother of seven, avid My sons were my care me or sent me gifts and cards. I theater-goer, art lover, and providers during and after healed. I resumed exercising. most importantly, a lung surgery. If I haven’t thanked And now I am a retired cancer survivor.

SPRING/SUMMER 2006  1 9 FIGHTjacque painter CLUB I was diagnosed with Stage III A non-small cell lung cancer in April 2004. I had my last treatment on Nov. 1, 2004. I am back to work full-time and doing more than I did prior to my diagnosis. I am currently working on improving my overall health and rebuilding my endurance and lung capacity. My goal is to walk the California International Marathon. This has been a strange journey for me. The fear and uncertainty that come from receiving a diagnosis of cancer are indescribable. However, from the first time I found out I had cancer, a whole new world opened.

Life in technicolor I realized an all-new relationship with my family. We have always been close and I knew they loved me, but I was in for a shock when they exposed the extent of their commitment to me. They kept me grounded and focused during those times when I just wanted to crawl off and cower and cry. I found out friends and co- “My goal is to walk the California Marathon,” says two-year lung cancer workers can and will do more for survivor Jacque Painter. you than you ever think possible. I have a mirror filled with note at the number of people it important. I no longer put things coards, e-mails and letters with actually took to fight my disease. off. I am no longer afraid to try words of love and encouragement. I once heard life described new things. I take trips, visit the I still read and use them to make as tinted with color prior and gardens and call that friend. I am each day count. Technicolor after a life-altering doing volunteer work, which is A very wonderful revelation event. For me this is true. I have what I always wanted to do, but was the army of doctors, nurses, found friends and comrades in just couldn’t seem to find time for. technicians, radiologists, arms in my support group. I have So for all the vicious and pharmacists, clerks and others experienced a new enjoyment of terrifying things cancer brings, who help you. I met the most life, and, like a lot of people who for me it also brought some very caring, concerned, intelligent, have a life-threatening illness, wonderful changes in my life – interesting people. I still wonder a renewed focus on what is and for that I am very thankful.

2 0  SYNTHESIS FIGHTCAROL SILL CLUB Many years ago a large cargo train derailed and landed in our business parking lot. The contents of that train were spread all over and I wondered if it would ever be cleaned up and we could reopen our business. In November 2004, my husband Dennis and I became part of another derailment. When we heard the words, “You have lung cancer,” it seemed as though a train had crashed in the middle of our house. The contents of this derailment contained love, laughter, hopes for the future, planned trips to be taken, Christmas presents ready to be wrapped and a turkey ready to be cooked and enjoyed. In the train derailment, crews, cranes and front-end loaders were brought in to clean up the mess. With the lung When she was diagnosed, Carol Sill couldn’t find a lung cancer support group. cancer derailment, there was no So she started one. emotional crew to come sit with us. Our search for help from That first meeting was a caregivers, regardless of where others like us led only to breast blessing; my attitude changed and they are being treated. cancer, ovarian, colorectal, I felt hope. There were only seven We will be there to assist prostate and other cancer people. But it was wonderful. you and your family through support groups. I knew this group would be the weeks of total emotional I had lung cancer. I was very helpful to our community. derailment. You will be terrified. I felt so alone. I didn’t Our group, now named Legacy: provided a list of lung cancer know what would happen and Sacramento’s Lung Cancer patients you can call and talk I didn’t want to hear any more Support Group, is growing. It is with confidentially. You will about breast cancer survival; open and free to all lung cancer know you are not alone. We will I wanted to hear about lung patients, their families and be there for you. cancer survival.

I felt hope Determined that no other For information about cancer support groups available in the greater person should have to face Sacramento region, please visit the Cancer Resource Center on the this alone, Dennis and I began first floor of the UC Davis Cancer Center or call (916) 734-5935. to lay the groundwork for Information is also available online in the “Patients & Visitors” area Sacramento’s first lung cancer of our Web site at http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/cancer. support group.

SPRING/SUMMER 2006  2 1 Linda Navarro

2 2  SYNTHESIS o u t r e a c h

Breaking with tradition, women from six tribes start a dialogue — and make a DVD — about breast cancer Mothers’ WISDOM

Of the 217 American Indian Marlene von Friederichs- languages still spoken today, Fitzwater, an assistant adjunct few, if any, have a word for professor of hematology and cancer. oncology at the Cancer Center There are words, though, for and director of the outreach friendship and for motherhood, program, set out to change that. O The Susan G. Komen Breast for health and for hope. It is from those concepts that the Cancer Foundation awarded her a Mothers’ Wisdom Breast Health $25,000 grant to get started. Program draws its strength. Guided by an advisory Six tribes sign on council of 11 women from six The work started about two tribes, Mothers’ Wisdom is a years ago. Linda Navarro, a program of the UC Davis Cancer ”It is respected figure in Sacramento’s Center’s Outreach Research and American Indian community, Education Program. Its goal: to something agreed to help. Of Cahuilla- address the unmet breast cancer Shasta descent, Navarro worked prevention needs of American most native for the California Rural Indian Indian women. I Health Board for 26 years before Although American Indian joining the Sacramento-based women are less likely than people don’t Turtle Health Plan, soon to women of other ethnic and be the nation’s first American racial groups to develop breast talk about.” Indian-owned, Indian-managed cancer, they are the least likely HMO. Representatives of the to survive longer than five Ione, Miwok, Paiute, Comanche years after diagnosis. They are and Lakota tribes also signed on. the least likely to have their Navarro had seen a variety breast cancer diagnosed at the of outreach efforts come and earliest, most curable stage, and go. Many were too clinical or the least likely to have had a weren’t user-friendly; others recent mammogram. Yet only failed to appeal to the diversity a handful of programs and of tribal cultures. materials have been developed “Some people think all to reduce these disparities. Indians are the same people,”

SPRING/SUMMER 2006  2 3 Navarro said. “There was not the urging of another member, an American Indian advisory Phyllis Cleveland, an oncology committee working on breast nurse of Miwok heritage. health, and that’s really, really important. I knew the kind of Call to action impact this could have.” The DVD will include a call to For her part, von action. It encourages women Friederichs-Fitzwater to be role models for their interviewed tribal health daughters and granddaughters. educators and leaders across the It targets poor nutrition and country and attended health- obesity, highlighting the related conferences and tribal availability of traditional, locally gatherings. Her research taught grown foods at farmers’ markets her that American Indian and cooperatives. It includes a women tend to focus on their section on exercising without children’s health over their own, elaborate equipment. are rarely depicted in media Other segments still to be stories about breast cancer, and filmed: how to do breast self- shun use of the word “cancer.” exams (the Mothers’ Wisdom “There’s a concern or council has decided to use the belief that saying it will bring term “breast massage”) and it forth or make it real,” von why regular mammograms Friederichs-Fitzwater said. are important. Helen Chew, assistant professor of The Mothers’ Wisdom logo Traditional values hematology and oncology and depicts the passing of The Mothers’ Wisdom program director of the UC Davis Cancer knowledge from one faces these and other challenges Center’s Breast Cancer Program, generation of women directly. will add information on breast First, in its method: A structure and function, breast to another. DVD will provide consistent, cancer diagnosis and cancer culturally sensitive information treatment options. to women, regardless of their literacy. Storytelling Second, through its Herbal and other traditional message: The DVD will medicine lore will be integrated. incorporate traditional values, The council plans to film a beliefs and philosophy with traditional blessing. American Western medical information. Indian cancer survivors will “I think it’s so important,” share their stories. All of the said Billie Blue Elliston, a information will be conveyed member of the Ione Band of through storytelling, consistent Miwok Indians and an ovarian with American Indian culture, cancer survivor. “I don’t think and backed by original music a lot of information gets out created and performed by to the tribes. I think they’ll be members of the council. interested when they realize Elliston said she has never Native Americans are involved.” heard American Indian women Elliston lives in Galt. She having an open discussion joined the advisory council at about breast health. She hopes

2 4  SYNTHESIS Mothers’ Wisdom Advisory Council, clockwise from back row left: Linda Navarro (Cahuilla-Shasta heritage), Marlene von Friederichs-Fitzwater, Deyetta Pickens-Gist (Miwok-Maidu), Barbara Hart (Pawnee), Tanya Erck (Comanche) and Kellie Stevens (Paiute). Not pictured: Joleen Rodriguez (Miwok) and Billie Blue Elliston and Phyllis Cleveland (Ione Bank of Miwok) the DVD, and future Mothers’ and, after revisions, to show The program opens with Wisdom materials, will spark it to 150 more women from at Navarro standing before an these discussions. least eight tribes. image of Mt. Shasta and blue sky. “It is something most Not long ago, at meeting of Her voice is calm, native people don’t talk about,” the Mothers’ Wisdom advisory deliberate, warm. she said. “But it is something council, the lights dimmed and She welcomes viewers. everyone needs to know about.” the women watched a rough cut Her face will be their face; The advisory council plans of the DVD for the first time. she is one of them – a sister, were to screen the DVD for Sometimes they nodded daughter, mother, grandmother. at least 50 American Indian or laughed. In the end, they women by the end of March approved.

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Tomotherapy represents a new generation in image-guided radiation treatment On TARGET

Radiation oncology has are in use worldwide. UC Davis witnessed rapid progress in Cancer Center hopes to begin recent decades, as technological offering tomotherapy to patients advances have made it possible this spring. for physicians to deliver “We can now offer our increasingly targeted and patients more treatment options R than any other cancer center powerful doses of radiation to treat cancers. in our region,” said Srinivasan But one challenge remained Vijayakumar, professor and – knowing precisely where chair of radiation oncology at the tumor stops and healthy UC Davis. tissue starts during radiation treatment. On Dec. 3, a crane Reduced margin carefully dropped a 9,000- ”We are of error pound solution to this problem Traditionally, a radiation through the roof of the UC able to offer oncologist obtains sophisticated Davis Cancer Center’s Radiation CT images of a tumor days or Oncology Clinic. The $3 million the patients weeks before radiation therapy tomotherapy unit represents W starts. These images are used to a new generation in radiation guide development of a detailed therapy technology. more choices treatment plan. But by the day of treatment, the cancer may Only unit in to fight their have grown or changed shape, Northern California or the patient’s weight may Since first reaching the market disease.” have changed, causing a shift in 2002, seven tomotherapy in tumor position. Some linear systems have been acquired accelerators are equipped with on the West Coast: one in an X-ray, but one-dimensional Bellingham, Wash., and five X-rays can’t provide the same in Southern California. UC level of detail as a three- Davis has the only tomotherapy dimensional CT study. unit between Los Angeles and “This uncertainty about . Only 43 of the machines the tumor’s exact position has

SPRING/SUMMER 2006  2 7 The Radiation Oncology Clinic expansion, completed last year, added 7,000 square feet to the south side of UC Davis Cancer Center, making room for new faculty and technology.

beams from just a handful of angles. Tomotherapy systems are marketed by TomoTherapy, Inc., in Madison, Wis.

$6 million expansion The new technology is part of an ambitious, three-year expansion of the Radiation Oncology Clinic and Department of Radiation Oncology spearheaded by Vijayakumar, who joined UC Davis from the University of Chicago in 2002. The expansion always meant calculating a sophisticated linear accelerator, includes the recruitment of five ‘margin of error’ and treating a allowing doctors to visualize new radiation oncology faculty zone around the tumor that is a tumor and apply radiation at physicians and physicists, along likely to include some healthy the same time, with pinpoint with the completion last year tissue. To avoid applying accuracy. This enhanced of a $6.1 million, 7,000-square- excessive radiation doses to this precision enables doctors to foot addition to the Radiation surrounding tissue, radiation use tighter margins and higher, Oncology Clinic, located at oncologists have had to use more effective radiation doses. 4501 X Street on the UC Davis lower-than-desired doses to treat In addition, tomotherapy Medical Center campus. the tumor,” Vijayakumar said. employs a linear accelerator that In addition to the rotates in a 360-degree spiral tomotherapy system, UC Davis Higher doses around the patient, delivering Cancer Center last summer Tomotherapy solves this radiation to the tumor from all acquired another system, a problem by marrying a high- directions. Traditional linear $1.9 million Elekta Synergy resolution CT scanner to a accelerators deliver radiation that combines an advanced linear accelerator with three-

2 8  SYNTHESIS Tomotherapy allows doctors to visualize a tumor and apply radiation at the same time.

dimensional X-ray technology. The linear accelerator in the Synergy system doesn’t rotate around the patient. But unlike tomotherapy, the Synergy machine can tailor radiation energy levels to a tumor’s location and shape.

Cranial radiosurgery UC Davis Cancer Center also offers patients two technologies for cranial radiosurgery: a Leksell gamma knife and a BrainLab micro multileaf collimator. The BrainLAB system can treat larger, irregular lesions, while the gamma knife can treat smaller tumors. UC Davis is the only institution in the Sacramento region and one of a small number in the country to offer both cranial radiosurgery options. “No single technology is best for every patient,” Vijayakumar said. “But by having more of the latest tools at our disposal, we are able to offer patients more choices to fight their disease.”

SPRING/SUMMER 2006  2 9 B e n e f a c t o r s

Women of South Placer County pledge $1.5 million for breast cancer research They Think PINK

As a breast cancer survivor, members, a professional logo, Carol Garcia says she feels attractive Web site (www. grateful for each new day – and wethinkpink.org) and a growing determined to do everything schedule of fundraisers. in her power to protect her two One of the first was held daughters from the disease. in October in partnership with A Brighton Collectibles in the With eight other prominent South Placer County-area Galleria at Roseville. The store residents whose lives have donated a portion of its sales been touched by cancer, Garcia of Breast Cancer Awareness established the South Placer Month charm bracelets to Breast Cancer Endowment. the endowment. Crush 29, a The fledgling group has vowed restaurant scheduled to open in to raise $1.5 million for an ”We want Roseville in 2006, has pledged endowed chair in breast cancer a portion of its grand opening research at UC Davis Cancer the next proceeds to the cause as well. Center by 2010. Also planned are a spring Authors’ Lunch and October Backyard Wbreakthrough Pink & White Ball, both to be breakthroughs held at the Granite Bay Golf “We want UC Davis to make in breast Club in Granite Bay. the next breakthrough in breast cancer research,” said Garcia, a cancer Influential allies senior vice president at Granite Julia Burrows, deputy city Community Bank in Roseville, research manager of Roseville, serves Calif. “We are so lucky to have as the fledgling organization’s a National Cancer Institute- to happen secretary. A UC Davis graduate, designated research center Burrows said she was inspired right here, and it’s a privilege to here.” to join in part because of the support it.” care her late mother received at Just six months old, the UC Davis Cancer Center. South Placer Breast Cancer “The research that scientists Endowment has about 30 are doing at UC Davis will help

3 0  SYNTHESIS Their name in lights: Virgil Traynor, front row, and Carol Garcia, in white sweater at his side, surrounded by fellow members of the South Placer Breast Cancer Endowment. all cancer patients,” said Burrows, of the Roseville Chamber of Founding father whose mother was diagnosed Commerce, and the president of The veterinarian, Virgil Traynor, with peritoneal cancer. Sierra College. There are high- deserves special mention. Breast cancer research ranking banking executives, Traynor spearheaded couldn’t ask for more influential marketing-media executives and the formation of the Auburn allies. In addition to Garcia and commercial land developers. Community Cancer Endowment Burrows, the South Placer Breast The membership list also in April 2001. Since then, the Cancer Endowment includes the includes a radio personality, grassroots Auburn group has mayors of Roseville, a Rocklin several consultants and a raised more than $1.38 million city councilwoman, the CEO veterinarian. toward its goal to endow a $1.5

SPRING/SUMMER 2006  3 1 million chair in basic cancer First chairs research. UC Davis Cancer Center hopes “All it takes is a just cause to establish the university’s and a committed community,” first endowed chairs in cancer Traynor said. research. In addition to chairs Garcia first got involved as a in basic science and breast volunteer in charge of planning cancer research, chairs are also the Auburn endowment’s $1 planned for clinical research, million celebration dinner. She prostate cancer, lung cancer, ”If Auburn and came away from that evening pediatric cancer, cancer genetics convinced that South Placer and cancer immunology. (see South Placer can County, home to the towns of story, page 9) Roseville, Rocklin, Lincoln and do it, think what Granite Bay, could also fund a Grateful to give back I research endowment. Garcia was diagnosed with Sacramento Extending breast cancer on Dec. 27, 1998. the challenge She was 39, the mother of two or the larger teenage daughters, worked Garcia and Traynor hope other full-time in banking, served cities and communities will also communities on the City of Roseville Grants decide to make their mark on Commission, the Child Abuse cancer research. Prevention Council of Placer could do.” “If Auburn and South Placer County, the Rotary Club of can do it, think what Sacramento Roseville, and was about to or the larger communities could be installed as president of do,” Traynor said. the Roseville Chamber of Endowed chairs, one of the Commerce. highest honors in academia, Over the next nine months, allow universities to retain or she had five surgeries, beginning recruit the best minds in each with a lumpectomy and ending generation. UC Davis now has with a bilateral mastectomy and more than 75 endowed chairs, reconstruction. typically named after the “Eight years later, a day individual, family, foundation doesn’t go by that I’m not or company that funds the reminded of the cancer that I endowment. Current UC Davis experienced, and that I don’t endowed professorships include wonder why I was spared and the Rumsey Endowed Chair others were not,” she said. “A in Pediatric Endocrinology, day doesn’t pass that I’m not the Robert E. and Eva Mae grateful for my health, and Stowell Chair in Pathology and grateful for the opportunity to the Lawrence J. Ellison Chair give back.” in Musculoskeletal Molecular Biology.

3 2  SYNTHESIS News in Brief News in Brief News in Brief

Cycle of inspiration: Helping survivors “live strong” Diagnosed with uterine cancer at age 35, Sacramento architect Pam Whitehead found inspiration in Lance Armstrong’s book, “It’s Not About the Bike.” Now Whitehead is sharing that inspiration with other cancer survivors. With $5,000 in start-up funds from the Lance Armstrong Foundation, Whitehead organized a fitness and strength-training program for cancer survivors. Called Living Strong, Living Well, the program is designed to help men and women recover their strength and vitality after cancer treatment.

The 16-week program is offered in partnership 2006 Intuitive Surgical, Inc. © with UC Davis Cancer Center and 650 FIT, a Sacramento fitness and exercise center. Robotic prostatectomy “Not everyone can win the Tour de France after a cancer diagnosis,” said Julie Brown, a The UC Davis Department of Urology, which first health educator at UC Davis Cancer Center who offered robotic prostatectomy in 2004, now has oversees the program. “But a guided exercise three specialists trained to perform the minimally program can help most cancer survivors become invasive prostate cancer operation. stronger, fitter and more energetic – and able to Robotic-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy is live life more fully.” performed via several small abdominal incisions, Whitehead received the $5,000 to launch each about the size of a dime. Miniature robotic the program as winner of the 2004 Lance arms and a robotic laparoscope – essentially Armstrong Foundation’s Lori A.Tilton Peloton a tiny telescope – are introduced through the Triumph Award. Prize winners must use the incisions. The surgeon operates the tools from a money to support a local, nonprofit program nearby console. benefiting cancer survivors. Whitehead hopes Because the procedure involves smaller to raise additional funds so that the program incisions, patients may be able to return to can continue to be offered at no cost to their normal activities more quickly than with participants. For information or to make a standard prostatectomy. donation, please call (916) 734-5786. However, the procedure is not appropriate for all prostate cancer patients and men who are interested in robotic surgery should discuss the pros and cons with their urologists. Men should also choose a center with extensive experience in the new technology.

Breast CT more comfortable than mammography Breast CT is much more comfortable for women than mammography – and may be better at detecting breast abnormalities. UC Davis researchers reported these preliminary results from an ongoing Phase II

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c a l e n d a r O F e v e n t s

March 7 trial of the new technology at the 2005 annual “Eating Hints for Cancer Patients” meeting of the Radiological Society of North Learn at Lunch Series America in Chicago in December. The trial will UC Davis Cancer Center auditorium, noon to 1 p.m. enroll about 190 patients in all. For more information: (916) 734-5786 Unlike mammography, which takes two X-ray views of each breast, breast CT yields about March 11 300 images per breast. In addition, breast CT What Vietnamese Americans Need to Know About Cancer Hosted by the Asian American Network for Cancer Awareness, requires no breast compression. The breast Research and Training CT was developed at UC Davis with funding UC Davis Cancer Center auditorium, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. from the California Breast Cancer Research For more information: (916) 734-5786 Program, the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute for Biomedical Imaging and March 17 Bioengineering. St. Baldrick’s Day -- Roseville Supports pediatric cancer research Cancer centers honor Roseville Sports Center, 1545 Pleasant Grove Blvd., Roseville, 5 to 9 p.m. For more information: [email protected] or (916) 784-6786 Diane Feinstein In recognition of March 18 her dedication St. Baldrick’s Day – Sacramento to advancing Supports pediatric cancer research cancer research UC Davis Cancer Center auditorium, noon to 3 p.m. and supporting For more information: [email protected] or (916) 784-6786 programs that March 30 ease the burden of “An Insider’s Look at UC Davis Cancer Center” cancer on patients, Luncheon and tour of research laboratories caregivers and Courtyard by Marriott Sacramento-Midtown, 4422 Y St., 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. communities, Sen. For more information: (916) 734-9675 Dianne Feinstein is the 2005 recipient April 1-2 of the American Relay for Life Association of Supports cancer research Toomey Field, Russell Blvd. and A St., UC Davis Cancer Institutes Public Service Award. For more information: Ralph deVere White, assistant dean for cancer programs at UC Davis and director of the UC April 4 Davis Cancer Center, presented the award to the “Chemo-Brain: Chemotherapy-Related Memory and Thinking Changes” California senator at the AACI’s annual meeting Learn at Lunch series in Arlington, Va., in October. UC Davis Cancer Center auditorium, noon to 1 p.m. The AACI consists of 85 of the leading For more information: (916) 734-5786 cancer research centers in the United States; its April 30 membership roster includes National Cancer Ridin’ for Survivin’ Institute-designated centers and academic- Supports pediatric cancer research based cancer research programs that receive Rocklin Harley-Davidson, 4425 Granite Dr., Rocklin, 9 a.m. NCI support. UC Davis Cancer Center is one Folsom Harley-Davidson, 115 Woodmere Rd., Folsom, 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. of 10 California cancer centers elected to the For more information: (916) 626-9211 organization.

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c a l e n d a r O F e v e n t s

May 2 “Getting Relief from Cancer Pain” Learn at Lunch series UC Davis Cancer Center auditorium, noon to 1 p.m. For more information: (916) 734-5786

May 6-7 Coolest 24-Hour Race Against Cancer Supports cancer research at UC Davis Cancer Center Olmstead Loop (behind the Fire Station in Cool, Calif.) For more information: www.thecoolestmtb.com

June 3 National Cancer Survivors Day UC Davis Cancer Center, time to be announced Sac State, UC Davis team up for For more information: (916) 734-5786 cancer prevention Leaders from California State University, June 6 Sacramento and UC Davis Cancer Center “Advance Medical Directives: What I Want My Loved Ones to Know” Learn at Lunch series signed an agreement in November to create a UC Davis Cancer Center auditorium, noon to 1 p.m. “Partnership to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities For more information: (916) 734-5786 Through Education, Research and Training.” Under the agreement, the institutions will collaborate July 11 on initiatives to strengthen cancer education and “Spirituality and Cancer: Mind/Body/Soul Connection” outreach in the Sacramento region and increase Learn at Lunch series cancer awareness in diverse populations. UC Davis Cancer Center auditorium, noon to 1 p.m. Projects under consideration include joint For more information: (916) 734-5786 grant applications, graduate student research August 25 opportunities, scholarships for minority students, “Chipping Away at Childhood Cancer” Memorial Golf Tournament and training opportunities with federal agencies. Supports UC Davis Cancer Center pediatric cancer research The Ridge Golf Course, 2020 Golf Course Rd., Auburn, 8 a.m. shotgun Reassurance for pregnant women For more information: [email protected] or (916) 784-6786 with thyroid cancer August 26 Pregnancy has no Celebration Gala significant impact on Black-tie fundraiser for UC Davis Cancer Center thyroid cancer, and Hyatt Regency Sacramento, 1209 L St. treatment for thyroid For more information: (916) 734-9110 cancer has no significant impact on pregnancy November 1 – December 8 outcomes, according to Beacon of Hope Adopt-a-Family Program research by Shagupta To adopt a family facing childhood cancer over the holidays, please contact the Keaton Rafael Memorial at Yasmeen, an assistant [email protected] or (916) 784-6786 professor of obstetrics and gynecology at UC Davis. “Thyroid cancer For more information about these and other programs, visit discovered during or www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/cancer/calendar_events or call (916) 734-5786. after pregnancy does

SPRING/SUMMER 2006  3 5 News in Brief News in Brief News in Brief

not appear to have a significant impact on the prognosis of the disease, and thyroidectomy (surgery to remove the thyroid) during pregnancy was not associated with adverse maternal or neonatal outcomes,” Yasmeen and her co- authors reported in the International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics in October. The researchers arrived at the good news by scouring the California Cancer Registry for all thyroid cancers occurring during pregnancy between 1991 and 1999, and comparing maternal and perinatal outcomes in these cases with those of an age-matched group of non pregnant women with thyroid cancer.

Palliative care guidelines for patients with prostate, bladder and kidney cancer A team of UC Davis urologic oncologists has published new guidelines to help physicians Science students help dedicate improve the quality of life for patients with Oak Park Research Building urogenital cancers. The guidelines appear in Sacramento High School science students joined the October issue of the Journal of Urology. university officials in January to dedicate the Christopher P. Evans, chair of the Department of Oak Park Research Building, the newest research Urology, is the senior author. facility serving the UC Davis Health System. The guidelines include strategies for managing The $20 million, 40,000-square-foot glass, bone pain, pelvic pain, bladder and ureteral brick and stucco building is headquarters for the obstruction, spinal cord compression and other National Science Foundation-funded UC Davis complications that can occur in patients with Center for Biophotonics Science and Technology, prostate, bladder and kidney cancer. where scientists are harnessing light to better detect and treat cancer and other diseases. The building also houses the laboratories of Kit Lam, professor and chief of hematology and oncology at UC Davis Cancer Center, and Andrew Vaughan, a radiobiologist in the UC Davis Department of Radiation Oncology. “The discoveries and technologies developed in this state-of-the-art facility will revolutionize biology and medicine,” said keynote speaker Nathaniel G. Pitts, director of integrative activities for the National Science Foundation. High school students from throughout the Sacramento region will learn about cutting- edge science through the biophotonics center’s education program, which seeks to foster a new generation of science leaders.

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