The Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center (JCCC) is a

cancer research Cancer research is research into cancer to identify causes and develop strategies for prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and cure. Cancer research ranges from epidemiology, molecular bioscience to the performance of clinical trials to evaluate a ...

center at

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a Normal school, teachers colle ...

History

The center was originated by UCLA scientists and volunteers who began working together in the late 1960s.Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center: University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California
National Cancer Institute (accessed August 22, 2016). The center was formally established in 1974 and was designated as a

comprehensive cancer center NCI-designated Cancer Centers are a group of 71 cancer research institutions in the United States supported by the National Cancer Institute. Program Three designations are recognized: Comprehensive Cancer Centers, Clinical Cancer Centers, and Ba ...

by the

National Cancer Institute The National Cancer Institute (NCI) coordinates the United States National Cancer Program and is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is one of eleven agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. T ...

in 1976.Anne Hubell, "University of California, Los Angeles, Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center" in ''The SAGE Encyclopedia of Cancer and Society'' (

SAGE Publications SAGE Publishing, formerly SAGE Publications, is an American independent publishing company founded in 1965 in New York by Sara Miller McCune and now based in Newbury Park, California. It publishes more than 1,000 journals, more than 800 bo ...

: 2d ed. 2015; ed. Graham A. Colditz), pp. 1228-29. The namesake of the center is the Jonsson family; entrepreneur and philanthropist Kenneth Alan Jonsson (the son of

Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) is an American technology company headquartered in Dallas, Texas, that designs and manufactures semiconductors and various integrated circuits, which it sells to electronics designers and manufacturers globa ...

co-founder J. Erik Jonsson), along with his wife Diana Gordon Jonsson, made a $1 million gift for UCLA in 1975 to establish the center, and continued to financially support the center over a period of decades.

Joseph W. Cullen Joseph W. Cullen (November 28, 1936 - November 24, 1990) was an American cancer prevention and rehabilitation researcher and briefly director of the AMC Cancer Research Center (1989-1990). He previously worked at the VA Hospital in Maryland (1968 ...

served as a deputy director of the center.

Organization, activities, and funding

The primary sponsor of the center is the Jonsson Cancer Center Foundation (JCCF), a 501(c)(3) entity (established in 1945). The center employs over 500 physicians and scientists, who engage in clinical activities (i.e.,

cancer treatment Cancer can be treated by surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, hormonal therapy, targeted therapy (including immunotherapy such as monoclonal antibody therapy) and synthetic lethality, most commonly as a series of separate treatments (e.g. ...

), education, research (

basic BASIC (Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages designed for ease of use. The original version was created by John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz at Dartmouth College ...

and

clinical Clinical may refer to: Healthcare * Of or about a clinic, a healthcare facility * Of or about the practice of medicine Other uses * ''Clinical'' (film), a 2017 American horror thriller See also * * * Clinical chemistry, the analysis of bodily flu ...

), and

cancer prevention Cancer prevention is the practice of taking active measures to decrease the incidence of cancer and mortality. The practice of prevention is dependent upon both individual efforts to improve lifestyle and seek preventive screening, and socioeconomi ...

. Although based at UCLA, the center has clinics elsewhere in California, in Westwood,

Santa Monica Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to ...

, Alhambra,

Irvine Irvine may refer to: Places On Earth Antarctica *Irvine Glacier * Mount Irvine (Antarctica) Australia * Irvine Island *Mount Irvine, New South Wales Canada * Irvine, Alberta *Irvine Inlet, Nunavut United Kingdom *Irvine, North Ayrshire, Scot ...

Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. Its ...

, Porter Ranch, Santa Clarita, and

Simi Valley Simi Valley (; Chumash: ''Shimiyi'') is a city in the valley of the same name in the southeast region of Ventura County, California, United States. Simi Valley is from Downtown Los Angeles, making it part of the Greater Los Angeles Area. T ...

. The center is known for its research on

breast The breast is one of two prominences located on the upper ventral region of a primate's torso. Both females and males develop breasts from the same embryological tissues. In females, it serves as the mammary gland, which produces and s ...

and

ovarian cancer Ovarian cancer is a cancerous tumor of an ovary. It may originate from the ovary itself or more commonly from communicating nearby structures such as fallopian tubes or the inner lining of the abdomen. The ovary is made up of three different ...

. JCCC scientists developed

palbociclib Palbociclib, sold under the brand name Ibrance among others, is a medication developed by Pfizer for the treatment of HR-positive and HER2-negative breast cancer. It is a selective inhibitor of the cyclin-dependent kinases CDK4 and CDK6. Pal ...

(PD 0332991), a breast-cancer drug that was in phase III clinical trials as of 2015. JCCC scientists also identified

IGF-1 Insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), also called somatomedin C, is a hormone similar in molecular structure to insulin which plays an important role in childhood growth, and has anabolic effects in adults. IGF-1 is a protein that in humans is ...

as a pathway as one pathway for the growth of tumors. In 2013, '' U.S. News & World Report'' ranked JCCC as #11 nationally among cancer centers. In 2015, the center ranked #6.UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center once again ranks among top 10 cancer centers nationwide
(press release), Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center (July 21, 2015).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center University of California, Los Angeles Cancer organizations based in the United States NCI-designated cancer centers UCLA Health