News & Events

Successful downstaging of selected patients with HCC (hepatocellular carcinoma) before liver transplantation leads to excellent 5-year recurrence-free and overall survival rates post-transplant, according to a just-reported multicenter study led by UCSF Transplant Program investigators. Medscape Medical News...

UCSF News reports on a study that found that the vast majoirty of liver transplant candidates who died or were delisted from the transplant list had previously received one or more liver donation offers: Most liver transplant candidates who died or were removed from the transplant list actually received one or...

The UCSF Transplant Program will have a strong presence at the World Transplant Congress (WTC), to be held July 26–31, 2014 at Moscone West Convention Center in San Francisco. The WTC brings together the members of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons (ASTS), The Transplantation Society (TTS) and the...

A recent paper in the journal Nature, reported by UCSF News by a research team including Associate Professor Holger Willenbring, M.D., Ph.D. and Senior Resident Jack Harbell, M.D., a former postdoctoral fellow in the Willenbring lab, reports a new method of cellular reprogramming with potential for treating liver...

Carlos Corvera, M.D. was recently installed as the 64th President of the UCSF Naffziger Surgical Society. The Society, an organization dedicated to surgical excellence, is comprised of graduates of the UCSF General Surgery Residency Program and other Department of Surgery faculty who joined at the invitation of...

"It was 1975 when Nancy Ascher, MD, PhD, chose surgery, a specialty shoulder-deep in men. Then again, so was medical school - Ascher was one of 20 women in her class of 180. After her residency, she blew past every gender barrier to become the first woman to perform a liver transplant, garnering enough speed to...

Eric Nakakura, M.D., Ph.D. has been awarded the 2012 Caring for Carcinoid Foundation-AACR Grant for Carcinoid Tumor and Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumor Research. Dr. Nakakura will receive $250,000 over two years to understand why some patients develop resistance to mTOR inhibiting drugs like everolimus. In...

The Nathan Bass UCSF Liver Transplant Conference 2012 will take place November 16-17th in Napa, CA. The Annual Conference at The Siverado in Napa features an outstanding group of faculty led by Francis Y.K. Yao, M.D. and is one of the most important educational activities of the Liver Transplant Service. It is an...

Intrahepatic bile duct cancer, a rare and deadly form of cancer, known formally as cholangiocarcinoma, has been assumed to derive from cells in the bile ducts of the liver. However, a n international team, led by Holger F. Willenbring, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor of Developmental and Stem Cell Biology in the...

Liver cancer patients in need of an organ transplant often face a cruel reality -- while waiting for a deceased-donor liver, their cancer may worsen, spreading to other organs and making them ineligible for a transplant. With two children to raise and time ticking down, Amy Baghdadi was fast running out of options...

In July 2011, the Department of Surgery created a new Hepatobiliary and Pancreas Service naming Carlos Corvera M.D., a hepatobiliary surgical oncologist, as its Chief. The multidisciplinary program brings together faculty members from surgery, hepatology, medical oncology, anesthesia, radiology and pathology to...

Then post-graduate student Eric Nakakura, M.D., Ph.D., working in the lab of Johns' Hopkins cancer biologist Barry Nelkin, was struck by how the migration of neurological cells to form the developing brain bore an uncanny similarly to the inexorable migration of invasive cells to distant sites in cancer metastasis...

Felsen, a classic and Indie rock band founded by drummer Andrew Griffin, Luce, Jesse Brewster and Brad Brooks held a benefit concert on Thursday, July 15th at 8 p.m at San Francisco's Red Devil Lounge. Proceeds from this exciting evening of music and dancing supported the research of the UCSF GI Oncology Research...

UCSF researchers, led by Doug Hanahan, Ph.D., have identified collections of tiny molecules known as microRNAs that affect distinct processes critical for cancer progression. The findings help elucidate the important regulatory function of microRNAs in tumor biology. Eric Nakakura, M.D., Ph.D. (pictured), a...