University of California San Francisco

Laura J. Esserman, MD, MBA Selected as 2018 OncLive Giant of Cancer Care in Cancer Diagnostics

UCSF Breastcare Program
August 25, 2018

Laura J Esserman MD MBA Is The Onclive 2018 Giant Of Cancer Care In Cancer Diagnostics

Laura J. Esserman, MD, MBA was selected as the 2018 OncLive® "Giant of Cancer Care" in Cancer Diagnostics. Dr. Esserman is professor of Surgery and Radiology at UCSF and director of the UCSF Carol Franc Buck Breast Care Center. She was chosen by an elite committee of her peers based on her long history of outstanding work in the field as noted in the announcement:

  • Dr. Esserman led efforts to address harms of screening including overdiagnosis, and proposed tools including the development of molecular diagnostics to help reclassify tumors as indolent lesions of epithelial origin or ultralow risk.
  • She leads the I-SPY Trials, a groundbreaking national public-private collaboration designed to reduce the time and cost for drug development, to find the right drug for the right patient earlier in the disease course when cure is possible.
  • She led the creation of the University of California-wide, and now national, Athena Breast Health Network, which integrates clinical care and research, and follows 150,000 women from screening through treatment and outcomes. This spawned the WISDOM study to determine weather personalized screening has higher healthcare value than the standard of annual screening.
  • Dr. Esserman was included as one of TIME magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2016 and was the recipient of the 2016 Stanford Business School Ernest C. Arbuckle Award and the 2016 Personalized Medicine World Conference Luminary Award.

The official announcement headlined, "OncLive Salutes 21 Visionaries With Giants of Cancer Care Award" reflected the significance of the honor:  

Twenty-one changemakers have been selected to receive a 2018 OncLive Giants of Cancer Care® award. The august group represents the largest class of inductees since the awards program was established in 2013. Recipients must be catalysts for change, demonstrating great accomplishment, imagination, inspiration, courage, and—perhaps most important—a true sense of urgency. The 2018 winners were recognized on Thursday, May 31, during an exclusive celebration at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, Illinois.

This year, a record number of individuals were nominated to receive the Giants award. These exceptional physicians and researchers have challenged the reigning paradigms in oncology with their innovative and groundbreaking contributions to patient care, clinical practice, and translational research. This year also marks the program’s largest international contingent, with almost 2 dozen nominees from outside the United States.

A 7-member advisory board chaired by Patrick I. Borgen, MD, reviewed the career achievements of the nominees, narrowing the field to 171 trailblazers, who were then voted on by an elite selection committee of distinguished oncologists and hematologists.

 

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Laura Esserman Honor and Awards
Breast Cancer Treatment