UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center is transforming cancer research and care by leveraging its strong scientific programs. Its unique partnership with the nation’s top veterinary school is leading to new therapeutic approaches to benefit companion animals and their human counterparts. Its MUSE microscope, developed by UC Davis pathologists, in collaboration with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, provides surgeons with rapid analysis capabilities. And the world’s first whole-body PET scanner now under construction will change the way cancers are detected and treatments delivered. The cancer center also leverages two NCI-funded programs in clinical research spanning phase 1-3 trials and offers patients throughout the region a city-wide phase I trials program. The cancer center also leads the nation in addressing unique cancer risks facing Asian-Americans, and is helping prevent cancers in high risk, underserved communities by coordinating HBV and HPV vaccination and cancer screening efforts.

The UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center seeks to reduce cancer incidence, mortality, and morbidity in our Northern California catchment area, nationally, and globally. To do this, we apply twin principles of precision cancer medicine and precision population health, aiming to systematically and intimately link research and clinical service delivery for patient benefit. We build on the richness of the basic biological insights and the extensive and exceptional clinical research and facilities at UCSF, one of the world’s leading health research universities. Moreover, our location in the Bay Area allows us to take advantage of one of the most innovative and intellectually progressive environments in the world. The Center’s 400 members represent dozens of departments and institutes across UCSF, which is the only UC campus devoted exclusively to the health sciences. Members are investigators in laboratory, clinical, and population-based research who collaborate across the cancer spectrum, from basic biology to risk factors and prevention and control strategies.

The Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center (JCCC) at UCLA includes over 500 members who conduct basic and translational cancer research. A distinguishing feature of the JCCC is its commitment to the translation of basic science discoveries to the clinic. Its members have a 20-year history of successfully doing so as exemplified by the development of the Her2/neu antibody Herceptin for the treatment of HER2/neu positive metastatic breast cancer. More recently, JCCC physicians have made advances in the treatment of melanoma, lung, and breast cancer. Our members are at the forefront in engineering the immune system to fight cancer, harnessing the immune response to attack tumors, and applying advances in nanotechnology for cancer drug delivery. In addition to our focus on defining the causes and of cancer and developing new treatments, members of our Patients and Survivors program have found that cancer survivors often experience acute and late effects that occur as a result of the therapies they have received, and they are developing interventions to minimize them. Finally, our researchers are keenly aware that some cancers are more prevalent in selected populations and that access to state-of-the-art cancer treatment is not equally available to everyone. Our disparities researchers are conducting research to understand why some groups of people may be more or less likely to develop cancer and how best to deliver care to these communities.

The Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, located at the UCI Medical Center campus in Orange, Calif., is the only NCI- designated comprehensive cancer center in Orange County, treating more cancer patients with complex cases than any other healthcare provider in the region. The cancer center is recognized for providing the highest quality care by the Quality Oncology Practice Initiative (QOPI) Certification Program, an affiliate of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. It is also a Blue Distinction® Center for Complex and Rare Cancers, designated by the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association for offering the full range of patient assessment, treatment planning, complex inpatient care and major surgical treatments for adults. The cancer center’s 200-plus scientists and clinicians come from more than 32 academic disciplines across UC Irvine’s schools of Medicine, Biological Sciences, Physical Sciences, Information & Computer Science, Engineering and Business to provide an interactive and collaborative infrastructure for discovery, clinical investigation and population-based cancer research. The cancer center offers one of the largest early-phase clinical research programs in Southern California, giving patients access to promising experimental medicines through clinical trials. Discoveries include practice-changing national clinical trials for brain, breast, gynecologic and lung cancers, as well the development of artificial intelligence technology to detect and prevent most colorectal malignancies.

UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center aims to save lives by transforming cancer prevention, detection and care. As San Diego’s only NCI-Designated Comprehensive Cancer Center and National Comprehensive Cancer Network member, Moores Cancer Center patients have access to bench-to-bedside innovations, the latest in surgical technologies and more than 300 interventional treatment trials. The new Jacobs Medical Center, a 245-bed, 10-story hospital, has dedicated space for specialized oncology, including a state-of-the-art unit with a pressurized, aseptic air-filtration system for the blood and marrow transplant program. The advanced surgery unit offers minimally invasive approaches, robotics, transplantation and other combinations of 3D visualization technologies that further advance surgical approaches to brain tumors, prostate cancer and more. With approximately 400 members, Moores Cancer Center has a history of research prominence in hematologic malignancies, cancer genomics, imaging, cancer stem cells and immune oncology, from cutting edge cell therapies to personalized vaccines (in collaboration with other elite basic science centers and biotechs) to new therapeutics for more than 200 types of cancer. Patients routinely undergo genomic sequencing with precision therapy (targeted and immune) decisions made in conjunction with a specialized Molecular Tumor Board.