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institutionsInstitution
UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center
Where trastuzumab (Slamon) and palbociclib were developed clinically, and a leader in PSMA PET and melanoma immunotherapy (Ribas).
Overview
The UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center in Los Angeles holds NCI comprehensive designation and is where trastuzumab was developed clinically through Slamon's HER2 work, where palbociclib entered the clinic, and where Antoni Ribas built a leading melanoma immunotherapy programme in checkpoint and TIL research. Johannes Czernin and Jeremie Calais made it a centre for PSMA PET, Hurvitz ran its breast trials programme before moving to Fred Hutch, and Michael A. Teitell, Amar U. Kishan, Aditya Bardia, Denise R. Aberle and the patient Barbara Bradfield are also listed. OnCo links it to HER2 and PSMA as targets, to trastuzumab, palbociclib and gallium-68 PSMA-11, and to melanoma and prostate cancer. How to extend the HER2 model of target, drug and companion test to new targets remains its recurring theme. Its HER2, melanoma and PSMA programmes are the ones to read.
Location
Los Angeles, US
Type
cancer center · University of California, Los Angeles
Website
Newsweek 2026 oncology rank
Not in top 300 listing used
NCI designation
comprehensive
OnCo score
#51 · 51 points (0 Newsweek + 15 NCI + 36 from 18 linked objects) · ranking
Research output
From OpenAlex, oncology works in the last five years (2022 to 2026, current year in progress); counted on 2026-09-24.
Matched to University of California, Los Angeles, including child institutions. 2,039 works · 33,523 citations · 72% open access · 11% clinical trials · 2% reviews.
Oncology works per year
4412022
4352023
4182024
4272025
3182026
Most works
- Antoni Ribas74 works
- Zev A. Wainberg63 works
- Edward B. Garon60 works
- Folasade P. May44 works
- Yan-Ruide Li43 works
- Bartosz Chmielowski40 works
- Lili Yang37 works
- Patricia A. Ganz32 works
- Sara A. Hurvitz30 works
- Jonathan Wade Goldman28 works
Most cited
- HER2 (Slamon)
- Melanoma immunotherapy (Ribas)
- PSMA PET
Aditya Bardia
Professor of Medicine and Director of Translational Research Integration, UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center
Antibody-drug conjugatesTriple-negative breast cancerOral SERDs
Led ASCENT, the trial that made sacituzumab govitecan the first ADC for triple-negative breast cancer, and the EMERALD trial of elacestrant.
Amar U. Kishan
Professor and Vice Chair of Clinical and Translational Research, Radiation Oncology, UCLA
Prostate radiotherapyMR-guided radiotherapyHypofractionation
Radiation oncologist who showed MRI-guided prostate radiotherapy causes fewer side effects.
Antoni Ribas
Professor of Medicine; Director, Tumor Immunology Program, UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center
MelanomaImmunotherapyResistance to checkpoint blockade
Melanoma immunotherapy leader behind pembrolizumab's first trials and the science of why immunotherapy fails.
Barbara Bradfield
First long-term survivor of the trastuzumab trials
HER2-positive breast cancerClinical trial participation
In 1992 she was the first patient with recurrent HER2-positive breast cancer to be treated with the antibody that became Herceptin, in Dennis Slamon's trial at UCLA. She became its first long-term survivor.
Denise R. Aberle
Professor of Radiology and Bioengineering, UCLA
Thoracic radiologyLung cancer screeningImaging trials
Principal investigator of the National Lung Screening Trial, which first proved CT screening saves lives.
Dennis J. Slamon
Director, Clinical/Translational Research, UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center; Chief, Division of Hematology-Oncology
Breast cancerHER2CDK4/6 inhibitors
Linked HER2 amplification to aggressive breast cancer and drove trastuzumab and later palbociclib to approval.
Jeremie Calais
Associate Professor; Director, Clinical Research Program, Ahmanson Translational Theranostics Division, UCLA
PSMA PETRadioligand therapyClinical trials
Runs the UCLA theranostics trials that test PSMA imaging against conventional scans and lutetium against chemotherapy.
Johannes Czernin
Chief, Ahmanson Translational Theranostics Division, UCLA
Nuclear medicinePSMA theranosticsPET imaging
Nuclear medicine leader who helped bring PSMA PET and radioligand therapy to the United States.
Michael A. Teitell
Director, UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center
Cancer metabolismLymphoma biologyCancer center leadership
Michael Teitell is a pathologist and cancer biologist who directs UCLA's cancer centre.
Owen N. Witte
University Professor; Founding Director Emeritus, Broad Stem Cell Research Center, UCLA
Prostate cancer biologyKinase signallingImmunotherapy targets
Discovered the BCR-ABL kinase activity that imatinib blocks and now hunts for new prostate cancer targets.
Richard S. Finn
Professor of Medicine, UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center
HR-positive breast cancerCDK4/6 inhibitorsHepatocellular carcinoma
Led PALOMA-2, which made palbociclib a first-line breast cancer drug, and IMbrave150, which made immunotherapy the standard for liver cancer.
Susan Love
Breast surgeon, author and founder of the Army of Women
Breast surgeryBreast cancer preventionPatient education
Her Breast Book gave women the information to question their surgeons; she co-founded the National Breast Cancer Coalition and in 2008 recruited hundreds of thousands of women into research through the Army of Women.
Timothy F. Cloughesy
Director, UCLA Neuro-Oncology Program
GlioblastomaNeoadjuvant immunotherapyTargeted therapy
Neuro-oncologist whose neoadjuvant PD-1 trial showed immunotherapy before surgery can activate immune responses in glioblastoma.
Zev A. Wainberg
Professor of Medicine and Co-Director, GI Oncology Program, UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center
Pancreatic cancerGastro-oesophageal cancerEarly drug development
Led NAPOLI 3, the trial that made NALIRIFOX a first-line option for metastatic pancreatic cancer.
observationalJAMA Oncology 2021changed practice289 citations
Diagnostic accuracy of 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET for pelvic nodal metastasis detection prior to radical prostatectomy and pelvic lymph node dissection: a multicenter prospective phase 3 imaging trial
This academic programme is what the FDA approved 68Ga-PSMA-11 on in December 2020, and the Illuccix and Locametz kits rest on it for the staging indication. Its message for a man being staged before surgery is that a positive PSMA PET node is very likely real, but a negative scan does not rule out small nodal deposits, so the lymph node dissection still matters.
reviewScience 20185,296 citations
Ribas and Wolchok 2018: cancer immunotherapy using checkpoint blockade
This is the standard overview of checkpoint immunotherapy for clinicians and scientists, tying together the trial results and the biology of response and resistance that guide today's combination trials.
translationalNature 20145,541 citations
Tumeh 2014: PD-1 blockade works by releasing T cells already present at the tumour edge
This paper explained why PD-1 antibodies work in some patients and not others and introduced the idea of inflamed versus non-inflamed tumours that now guides combination strategies designed to bring T cells into cold tumours.
translationalScience 1989changed practice4,866 citations
Slamon 1989: HER2/neu in human breast and ovarian cancer
This study confirmed HER2 as a prognostic marker and a therapeutic target, showed that immunohistochemistry could identify the patients, and extended the target to ovarian cancer. It set up the clinical development of trastuzumab and the HER2 testing that every breast cancer now receives.
Similar pages
- TreatmentIlluccix (kit for Ga-68 gozetotide)
Shares Diagnostic accuracy of 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET for pelvic nodal metastasis detection prior to radical prostatectomy and pelvic lymph node dissection: a multicenter prospective phase 3 imaging trial, Gallium-68 gozetotide (PSMA-11), PSMA-PreRP, PSMA.
- PersonThomas A. Hope
Shares Diagnostic accuracy of 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET for pelvic nodal metastasis detection prior to radical prostatectomy and pelvic lymph node dissection: a multicenter prospective phase 3 imaging trial, PSMA-PreRP, PSMA, PSMA PET.
- Key paperSlamon 2001: adding trastuzumab to chemotherapy for HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer
Shares Slamon 1989: HER2/neu in human breast and ovarian cancer, Dennis J. Slamon, Trastuzumab, HER2.
- Key paperSlamon 1987: HER2 gene amplification marks an aggressive form of breast cancer
Shares Slamon 1989: HER2/neu in human breast and ovarian cancer, Dennis J. Slamon, HER2.
- InstitutionUCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center
Shares Diagnostic accuracy of 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET for pelvic nodal metastasis detection prior to radical prostatectomy and pelvic lymph node dissection: a multicenter prospective phase 3 imaging trial, Gallium-68 gozetotide (PSMA-11), PSMA-PreRP, Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy.
- TreatmentLocametz (kit for Ga-68 gozetotide)
Shares Gallium-68 gozetotide (PSMA-11), PSMA, PSMA PET, Prostate cancer.
- InstitutionUniversity of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center
Shares ViewRay (MRIdian), MR-guided adaptive radiotherapy, National Cancer Institute (NIH), Prostate cancer.
- TrialPSMA PET Combined With MRI for the Detection of PCa
Shares Gallium-68 gozetotide (PSMA-11), PSMA PET, Prostate cancer.
cancers
technologies
targets
drugs
ApprovedPET imaging agent
Gallium-68 gozetotide (PSMA-11) · Illuccix / Gozellix / Locametz
ApprovedSmall-molecule CDK4/6 inhibitor
Palbociclib · Ibrance
ApprovedMonoclonal antibody (anti-HER2)
Trastuzumab · Herceptin (and biosimilars, Phesgo with pertuzumab)
companies
institutions
trials
people
key papers
Diagnostic accuracy of 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET for pelvic nodal metastasis detection prior to radical prostatectomy and pelvic lymph node dissection: a multicenter prospective phase 3 imaging trialRibas and Wolchok 2018: cancer immunotherapy using checkpoint blockadeSlamon 1989: HER2/neu in human breast and ovarian cancerTumeh 2014: PD-1 blockade works by releasing T cells already present at the tumour edge