The Hirshberg Foundation is excited to have Dr. Hines joining us at the 15th Annual Symposium on Pancreatic Cancer to discuss personalized medicine and the importance of tumor testing.

Dr. O. Joe Hines is the Professor and Chief of the Division of General Surgery, Robert and Kelly Day Chair in General Surgery and the Vice Chair for Administration. He serves as the Director of the UCLA Agi Hirshberg Center for Pancreatic Diseases. Dr. Hines attended the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine and was inducted into Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society in 1989. He trained in general surgery at UCLA, including two years of research in gastrointestinal physiology, and was then recruited to the UCLA faculty in 1997. While at UCLA he has received the Department Golden Scalpel Award for teaching excellence 10 times and the UCLA School of Medicine Award for Excellence in Education.

His research has focused on angiogenesis, cytokines, and pancreatic carcinogenesis, including the role of diet in modulating these processes. Dr. Hines’ research has been consistently funded by NIH, and he has served in the NIH Scientific Review Committee Tumor Progression and Metastasis. Dr. Hines is past-President of the Society of University Surgeons and has served as the Vice-President of the Pacific Coast Surgical Association, President of the Southern California Chapter of the American College of Surgeons, and now on the Board of Governors of the American College of Surgeons and as a Director of the American Board of Surgery. Dr. Hines was awarded the American College of Surgeons Traveling Fellowship to Germany in 2005, and was a James IV Traveling Fellow in 2011. 

Dr. Hines will speak on Personalized Medicine and Tumor Testing along with fellow surgeon Dr. Timothy Donahue.

The Hirshberg Foundation is excited to welcome Dr. Donahue to the 15th Annual Symposium on Pancreatic Cancer to discuss personalized medicine and tumor testing.

Dr. Timothy Donahue attended Northwestern University where he received both his Bachelor’s degree and Medical degree. Upon completion, he continued his surgical and research training at UCLA. In 2009, he was appointed faculty and has made strides at UCLA ever since.

Dr. Donahue is a Professor of Surgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He has a joint appointment in the Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology to facilitate his research program. Dr. Donahue is the Chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology and Vice Chair for Cancer Surgery in the Department of Surgery. In this role, he oversees all of cancer surgery including the pancreatic cancer program, which is one of the largest in the nation. Dr. Donahue is a valuable part of the surgical team at the UCLA Agi Hirshberg Center for Pancreatic Diseases. In addition, Dr. Donahue is also the Program Director of the General Surgery Residency Program at UCLA.

Dr. Donahue is a very busy pancreatic surgeon who works diligently performing up to three pancreatic surgeries per week. He is especially interested in caring for patients with pancreatic cancer. His clinical research is focused on improving the care of patients with borderline resectable or locally advanced disease. Dr. Donahue is a strong advocate of prolonged preoperative chemo or radiation therapy for this group of patients to optimally select for those who will benefit from a surgical resection. As a result of this approach, Dr. Donahue and his team have among the best survival rates that have been reported. In addition to his clinical work, Dr. Donahue is the Principal Investigator of a National Institutes of Health funded research laboratory. His scientific research focuses on developing improved treatment strategies and earlier diagnostic markers for patients with pancreatic cancer. He collaborates closely with other scientists across the UCLA campus, including faculty in the Ahmanson Translational Imaging Division and California Nanosystems Institute. He is optimistic that therapy for pancreatic cancer will markedly improve during his career.

Dr. Donahue will speak on Personalized Medicine and Tumor Testing along with fellow surgeon Dr. Joe Hines.

The UCLA School of Nursing seeks volunteers to participate in a study that aims to improve the lives of pancreatic cancer patients and caregivers through innovative technology – not additional medicine. This study is the first of its kind to focus on the issues that surround pancreatic cancer, including depression and fatigue.

This project, funded through a 2017 Seed Grant, will look for a link between nurse contact and patient well-being, with online nursing touch-points to help improve depression. The study consists of 5, 10-15 minute long questionnaires over the course of 12 weeks. If you are a pancreatic cancer patient or caregiver, you may be eligible to participate in this study!

Am I Eligible?

You are eligible if you have been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer or you are a caregiver for someone with pancreatic cancer, and you have no history of dementia, bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia.

What Do I Have to Do During the Study?

• You will be asked to complete an initial questionnaire that will ask you about your mood, symptoms, medication management, sleep, social support, quality of life, and satisfaction with care. This will take about 10-15 minutes to complete.
• You will be asked to complete additional questionnaires during the 2, 4, 6, and 12 weeks after enrollment.
• If you and your caregiver do not have depressive symptoms, we will ask you to use the chemoWaveapp to track your symptoms for 12 weeks.
• If you or your caregiver have depressive symptoms, you will both receive 6-weeks of online cognitive behavioral therapy (iCBT) at no cost.

What happens during iCBT?

• You will have access to MoodGym, an online cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) program.
• You will have weekly online sessions with the nurse therapist to talk about depressive thoughts and how to cope with them.

What Do I Get From the Study?

• Free symptom management tools, including chemoWave and iCBT
• Greater insights into your treatment via symptom tracking
• Knowledge that you’re helping researchers learn about interventions to improve quality of life and depressive symptoms for pancreatic cancer patients and caregivers
• Chance to be entered into a raffle for a $150 Amazon gift card

For more information and to sign up for this study, contact Belinda Chen.

Phone: 310-794-5492

E-mail: bchen@sonnet.ucla.edu

https://www.nursing.ucla.edu/node/511

The Hirshberg Foundation is delighted to welcome past Seed Grant awardee and crowd favorite Dr. Li to the 15th Annual Symposium on Pancreatic Cancer to discuss the importance of nutrition for all those with a pancreatic cancer diagnosis.

In 2016, Dr. Li received a Hirshberg Seed Grant to help fund a nutritional study that seeks to improve the outcomes of pancreatic cancer patients that are not eligible for surgery. Dr. Li has spoken previously at the Symposium on the importance of nutrition for pancreatic cancer patients. She was integral to our cooking class for patients and their family members and helped to develop a handful of healthy recipes. Consistently a crowd favorite, she shares important, real world tips on optimal nutrition for the patient post-surgery as well as for those non-surgical patients. We are excited to have Dr. Li speaking on Nutrition and Pancreatic Cancer…Food Matters!

Dr. Zhaoping Li is a Professor of Medicine, and Chief of Clinical Nutrition Division at UCLA School of Medicine, Ronald Regan Medical Center. She also directs the UCLA Center for Human Nutrition, overseeing the research coordinator, clinical dietitians and clinical fellows. She has been Principal Investigator for more than 50 investigator-initiated and industry-sponsored clinical trials in the fields of nutrition, obesity and botanical research. She served as the Chair of Obesity Research Section for the American Society of Nutrition. She also serves as Board Member of UCLA Physician Practice Group.

The Hirshberg Foundation is thrilled to have the distinguished specialists on early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, Dr. Chari, join us for our 15th Annual Symposium on Pancreatic Cancer on March 2nd, 2019.

Suresh Chari, MD is currently Professor of Medicine and a Consultant in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Rochester, MN.

Dr. Chari trained in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology in India as well as the United States. He has been the Director of Pancreas Clinic at Mayo Clinic Rochester. He has been Councilor and past President of the American Pancreatic Association as well as Councilor and past President of the International Association of Pancreatology. His NIH-funded research has been on new-onset diabetes as an early marker of pancreatic cancer. He was principal investigator of EXPAND trial, the first prospective pilot screening study for sporadic pancreatic cancer in subjects with new-onset diabetes. He is also the principal investigator at Mayo Clinic for the U01 Consortium for Study of Chronic Pancreatitis, Diabetes and Pancreatic Cancer in which he is co-leading a prospective study on new-onset diabetes.

Dr. Chari will discuss Clues to Early Diagnosis.

To learn more about Suresh Chari, MD please visit
https://www.mayo.edu/research/faculty/chari-suresh-t-m-d/bio-00085255

The Hirshberg Foundation is excited to have the esteemed Dr. Saluja at our 15th Annual Symposium on Pancreatic Cancer to speak on new drug therapies that target pancreatic cancer.

Ashok K. Saluja, PhD is the Professor and Vice-Chair, Department of Surgery and Director, Sylvester Pancreatic Cancer Research Institute.

Dr. Saluja received his PhD in Biochemistry from Washington State University and did his postdoctoral training at Cornell University. Before joining the University of Minnesota in 2006, he was professor and director of the Pancreatic Diseases Center at UMass Medical School and, before that, at Harvard Medical School for twenty years.

Dr. Saluja’s research is primarily focused on pancreatic diseases and how it can be taken from bench to bedside. The Saluja Laboratory is interested in the role played by heat shock proteins in the pathophysiology of this resistance. The Lab has demonstrated that HSP70 is overexpressed in pancreatic cancer cells and that its inhibition leads to apoptotic cell death.

Dr. Saluja will speak about New Drug Therapies For Pancreatic Cancer.

To learn more about Ashok K. Saluja, Ph.D please visit
http://bm.med.miami.edu/faculty/facultybmb/ashok-k.-saluja-phd