Cancer Center at UCLA

As one of the individuals quoted in Claire Spiegel’s article regarding UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center (“Top Cancer Scientists Leaving UCLA Center,” Part B, April 29), I am concerned about some omissions from the article, a few of which have caused needless concerns for some of our patients at UCLA.

People sometimes need denominators. The article may not have provided the reader sufficient perspective to permit a balanced and accurate interpretation of the facts. For instance, the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCLA has 320 faculty members (including 104 clinical oncologists); the six or eight who have left over the last three years represent 2% of the total, and will be or have been replaced by leading scientists and physicians. Not an alarming turnover rate in any enterprise, let alone academic medicine, where movement between institutions is often a phase in career development.

Likewise, the loss of the Wayne Foundation’s support of $1.5 million over 10 years must be viewed in the context of the more than $90 million for research that UCLA cancer specialists will receive from sources outside UCLA this year alone. This 0.16% decrease in available outside funds was more than offset by the $9 million increase in outside support awarded to UCLA researchers over the last year alone. The cancer programs at UCLA remain quite robust.

The article was quite correct in reporting that we are in the initial phases of a technological revolution with respect to the understanding and treatment of cancer. It is a very exciting time to be involved in cancer research, particularly at an institution such as UCLA, which has made cancer research, patient care and community service its top priority.

The opportunities presented by these times, when coupled with UCLA’s commitment to cancer care and research, ensure that cancer patients treated at UCLA will continue to receive the benefits of this research, and to be cared for by devoted physicians and nurses who want to be at UCLA because they have the deep commitment to the values of excellence, humanitarian service and scholarship that are an integral part of university life. The rewards in this work eclipse anything implied in the word “lucrative.”

JOHN A. GLASPY, MD, Medical Director, Bowyer Oncology Center, UCLA