The Source for all the latest News & Events in and around the HSC Campus.
Members of the media seeking comment from physicians, researchers or other members of the USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center should contact Media Relations Representative Jon Weiner for assistance at (323) 442-2830.
Norris receives $5 million to support innovative cancer research
05/14/2008
The gift will extend funding of the L.K. Whittier Foundation Innovative Tailored Therapies Initiative.
$5 Million gift names cancer day hospital
03/19/2008
Philanthropist and businessman Larry Freeman has donated $5 million to the USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and Hospital.
USC researchers find benefit in combined PET-CT scanning
03/12/2008
Combined PET and CT imaging of lymphoma patients is a more effective method to evaluate response to radiation therapy, a study suggests.
Tumor vaccines developed by researchers
03/15/2008
A new study reveals how researchers have discovered a new molecular player that will help create a better vaccination against tumors.
Prostate cancer test vaccine a success
02/01/2008
Researchers from the USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and Keck School of Medicine of USC develop a vaccine that prevents the development of cancer in mice. The strategy might work for men, they suggest.
USC/NORRIS RECEIVES HISTORIC $60 MILLION GIFT FOR HEMATOLOGY
12/13/2007
Gift will drive recruitment of top faculty and researchers
USC scientists awarded $1 million for metastatic colon cancer research
10/26/2007
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) has awarded Michael Kahn and Heinz-Josef Lenz nearly $1 million in funding for metastatic colon cancer research—the largest grant given this year.
The 2007 Jeannik M. Littlefield-AACR Grants support the research of top scientists from around the world working to accelerate the discovery and development of new treatments for metastatic colon cancer.
USC receives $10 million epigenetics grant
10/05/2007
The Keck School of Medicine has received a $10 million gift from the Kenneth T. & Eileen L. Norris Foundation that will be critical in launching one of the nation’s first research centers devoted to the study of epigenetics.
The grant will solidify USC’s position at the forefront of epigenetics research—a field that holds great promise in the treatment and prevention of cancer, said Peter Jones, director of the USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center at the Keck School.
USC/Norris cancer researcher announces advances in colorectal cancer treatment
09/28/2007
Two translational studies authored by USC/Norris oncologist Heinz-Josef Lenz, professor of medicine at the Keck School of Medicine, and his colleagues were published in the Aug. 20 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
DONOR ENDOWS CHAIR IN CANCER RESEARCH
09/14/2007
Longtime USC/Norris supporter Stillman “Tom” Sawyer (right) dedicated the Mark A., J. Ruth, and Stillman F. Sawyer Chair in Cancer Research on Aug. 25 with Peter Jones, director of the cancer center. Funds from this endowed chair will support unrestricted recruitment at the discretion of the director in perpetuity.
USC cancer researcher receives $1.5 million NCI grant
09/14/2007
In the war on lung cancer, Keck School of Medicine researcher Ite Laird-Offringa surveys the battlefield and zeros in on promising targets.
Laird-Offringa, associate professor of surgery and biochemistry and molecular biology, recently received a second R01 grant from the National Cancer Institute—a five-year, $1.5 million award to search the genome for DNA-silencing methylation changes during the progression of lung adenocarcinoma, currently the most common lung cancer in the U.S.
USC/Norris Auxiliary celebrates 20 years of service to cancer patients
08/24/2007
Celebrating 20 years of service to the USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, members of the USC/Norris Auxiliary will hold an anniversary luncheon Sept. 24.
The event will include special presentations and a program on lung cancer by Barbara Gitlitz, Keck School associate professor of clinical medicine and director of Norris’ Lung, Head and Neck Program.
USC researchers zero in on ways genes allow tumors to evade immune system
08/10/2007
One of the fundamental traits of a tumor—how it avoids the immune system—might become its biggest vulnerability, according to researchers at USC.
Findings indicate that a technique for determining a tumor’s “immune signature,” demonstrated in human breast and colorectal cancer, could be useful for diagnosing and treating specific cancers.
USC licenses tools for cancer detection to biotech firm
07/13/2007
Los Angeles-based biopharmaceutical company Abraxis BioScience, Inc.
recently acquired a license from USC to develop and commercialize a portfolio of diagnostic protein biomarkers for therapy response, therapy toxicity and disease recurrence in colorectal cancers (CRCs).
The intellectual property licensed stems from research by Heinz-Josef Lenz, Associate Director of Clinical Research at the USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, and his colleagues. The USC Stevens Institute for Innovation facilitated the licensing transaction, the financial terms of which were not announced.
STOP CANCER awards USC pediatrician $150,000 for research career development
03/16/2007
Kathleen Meeske, an assistant professor of pediatrics and preventive medicine at the Keck School of Medicine, has received a 2006 STOP CANCER Research Career Development Award.
The $150,000 award—matched in-kind by the USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, for a total value of $300,000—will fund a multi-site longitudinal study at three major cancer centers: Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, Miller Children’s Hospital in Long Beach and C.S. Mott Hospital at the University of Michigan.
New Cancer Lab Dedicated
03/16/2007
The USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center dedicated the Sharon A. Carpenter Laboratory on March 9, honoring a longtime patient of Heinz-Josef Lenz, professor of medicine at the Keck School of Medicine and associate director of clinical research at USC/Norris. Glenn Carpenter recently made a $400,000 gift to USC/Norris to spur Lenz’s research, as well as a $100,000 gift to the USC Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center. Sharon Carpenter fought colon cancer for years with Lenz’s help, but ultimately succumbed to the disease, The plaque at the laboratory entrance is inscribed with her personal motto: “I have cancer but cancer doesn’t have me.”
High-resolution scanner targets breast cancers that might otherwise go undiagnosed
03/02/2007
Researchers at the Keck School of Medicine¹s Department of Radiology recently acquired an innovative new technology for use in imaging breast cancers.
Pulin Sheth, assistant professor of clinical radiology and director of breast imaging at the Harold E. and Henrietta C. Lee Breast Center of the USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, is the principal investigator on a new pilot study to assess customer acceptance of the latest generation of PEM technology, the PEM Flex Solo II. The Keck School is the first institution in the country to acquire and test this new device.