PROTEIN TRANSDUCTION: - Moores Cancer Center
PROTEIN TRANSDUCTION: - Moores Cancer Center
PROTEIN TRANSDUCTION: - Moores Cancer Center
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CENTER EXPANDS<br />
CLINICAL STAFF<br />
As part of the <strong>Cancer</strong> <strong>Center</strong>’s planned enhancement of its clinical services, we are<br />
pleased to introduce three new members of our clinical staff.<br />
Cynthia Sava, M.S.W.<br />
A diagnosis of cancer can change<br />
the entire landscape of an individual’s<br />
environment, impacting family<br />
and close friends, and creating a<br />
new set of circumstances that can<br />
throw an otherwise normal life —<br />
marriage and relationships, career,<br />
finances – into a tailspin. Cynthia<br />
Sava, M.S.W., is a clinical counselor<br />
whose primary responsibility is to<br />
formulate, manage, and deliver<br />
psychosocial treatment plans for<br />
our cancer patients. Just as there<br />
are many kinds of cancer, each<br />
affecting an individual in its unique<br />
way, there are also many factors to<br />
consider in developing a treatment<br />
plan. Taking age and gender into<br />
account, Sava identifies a patient’s<br />
support network and assesses<br />
coping skills, education, spirituality,<br />
cultural beliefs, family roles, and<br />
socio-economic status that may<br />
hinder ability to access services.<br />
Other physical or mental health<br />
issues may further complicate matters.<br />
Sava is also developing several<br />
group programs that are specially<br />
designed for patient groups, and for<br />
patients and their family caregivers.<br />
Lakshmi Vemuri, M.D.<br />
Dr. Vemuri is a medical oncologist<br />
who recently joined the UCSD<br />
faculty as an Assistant Professor<br />
of Medicine in the Division of<br />
Hematology/Oncology. Prior to<br />
joining the faculty, she trained at<br />
UCSD as a hematology/oncology<br />
fellow. During that time she worked<br />
as a co-investigator with Asad<br />
Bashey, M.D., Ph.D., Assistant<br />
Professor of Medicine, on a national<br />
Phase III clinical trial involving a drug<br />
being tested as a treatment for<br />
chronic myelogenous leukemia.<br />
Based upon the results of this trial<br />
the investigational drug, now known<br />
as Gleevec, was approved by the<br />
FDA and today is widely available to<br />
cancer patients. Vemuri’s clinical and<br />
research interests include brain<br />
tumors, gastrointestinal cancers,<br />
breast cancer, and melanoma. She is<br />
currently working to develop clinical<br />
trials for patients with brain tumors<br />
and with gastrointestinal cancers.<br />
She sees patients in the Theodore<br />
Gildred Facility at UCSD Medical<br />
<strong>Center</strong> in Hillcrest, and at the Perlman<br />
Ambulatory Care <strong>Center</strong> adjacent to<br />
Thornton Hospital in La Jolla.<br />
Susan Wilson, Pharm.D.<br />
Susan A. Wilson, Pharm.D.,<br />
is coordinating the clinical and<br />
administrative aspects of our<br />
inpatient and outpatient pharmacy<br />
services, a new position in the<br />
<strong>Cancer</strong> <strong>Center</strong>. After obtaining her<br />
Doctor of Pharmacy degree from<br />
the University of Nebraska Medical<br />
<strong>Center</strong>, Susan spent four years as a<br />
staff pharmacist in their bone marrow<br />
transplantation program. She<br />
became a staff pharmacist for<br />
Thornton Hospital in 1993, and also<br />
worked closely with our Blood and<br />
Marrow Transplantation Program.<br />
Susan is responsible for managing<br />
the costs associated with our<br />
chemotherapy program. While developing<br />
procedures that streamline the<br />
administration of drugs to cancer<br />
patients, Susan keeps focused on<br />
the most important factor – safety.<br />
Directly relevant to this administrative<br />
responsibility, she is a member of a<br />
task force that is reviewing software<br />
programs to facilitate online drug<br />
reporting and ordering.<br />
9<br />
<strong>Cancer</strong> <strong>Center</strong> News