Photo courtesy Los Angeles County Medical Association

At a recent Los Angeles County Medical Association mayoral roundtable focusing on health care are, from left: Donald Larsen, … Read More »

By Amy E. Hamaker

Glen Miller could never have guessed that a 15-year-old X-ray from a snowmobile accident would lead him to the USC doctor who would change his life.

Excellent care and kind treatments prompted Glen Miller and his wife Wendy to help establish the Glen and Wendy Miller/Inderbir Gill Kidney Cancer Research Program.
Courtesy Glen Miller

“Other than a busted ego, I was basically fine after the accident,” said Miller, CEO of Diversified Financial Management Corp. and one of the founders of the Glen and Wendy Miller Family Foundation, a not-for-profit corporation located in Bannockburn, Ill.

The X-ray became important again, years later when Miller’s doctor found a growth on his kidney after prostate problems. “You can see the growth on the old X-ray, although the emergency room staff hadn’t been looking at my kidneys at the time,” he said. … Read More »

As USC celebrates the 40th anniversary of the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, The Weekly will run in each issue through the end of the year items highlighting key moments in the history of the institution.

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By Mike McNulty

With one touch last summer, what was just another day in the life of a Trojan graduate student suddenly became something much more.

Caryn Roach … Read More »

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By Josh Grossberg

It’s such a dreaded thing that people often refer to it only by its initial — the C word.

But at the Festival of Life on June 1, the letter stood for a lot more than cancer. There was also courage, care and mostly, celebration.

Festival participant Laurie Miller signs the Festival of Life scroll.
Photo/Lisa Brook

Hundreds of cancer survivors and their families gathered in the Harry & Celesta Pappas Quad on the Health Sciences Campus to commemorate their success in beating back the disease and to show others that they can do it too. … Read More »

The American Thoracic Society awarded its highest recognition, the Edward Livingston Trudeau Medal, to Jonathan M. Samet, professor and Flora L. Thornton Chair in the Department of Preventive Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, at its annual meeting May 19. … Read More »

By Josh Grossberg

For patients and visitors to USC Norris Cancer Hospital, the effect of new photographs in the lobby can be subtle, but for the man who took the photographs, they can bring some calm to people during a very stressful time in their life.

USC Norris cancer patient Jim Martellotti displays one of his photos in the lobby of the cancer hospital.

It is a situation Jim Martellotti knows well. Not only did he take three of the framed photos strategically located in hospital’s lobby and seating areas, but he’s also a longtime cancer patient.

When the lifelong shutterbug heard the hospital was looking to decorate the lobby and some upper floors after a renovation, the 65-year-old Martellotti knew he wanted to be part of it. … Read More »

By Paul Karon

Whether producing movies that change women’s attitudes toward cervical cancer screening, or using mobile technology to keep people with diabetes out of the emergency room, public health research is complex and painstaking work. In many cases, however, the hard part is not the science, but finding the right partners and participants.

The Southern California Clinical and Translational Science Institute (SC CTSI), whose mission is to speed the conversion of research into public health solutions, provides expertise and assistance that not only helps USC’s investigators conduct their research, but also benefits the university’s neighbors throughout Los Angeles and Southern California. … Read More »

By Amy E. Hamaker

Michael F. Press, the Harold E. Lee Chair in Cancer Research and professor of pathology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, was recently supported by a grant from the Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Medical Research Foundation enabling him to collaborate with researchers from several other institutions on the genetics of ovarian cancer.
Courtesy Michael F. Press

Ovarian cancer frequently goes undiagnosed until it has spread, making it difficult to treat and often fatal. Research into genetic mechanisms of ovarian cancer at USC recently received a boost thanks to a grant of more than $300,000 from the Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Medical Research Foundation.

Michael F. Press, the Harold E. Lee Chair in Cancer Research at the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and professor of pathology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, received $317,000 for the project “Potential Assays for Patient Selection to Ovarian Cancer Clinical Trials.” Press and his collaborators will continue their work into analyzing genomic alterations and determining how those alterations can be used to map specific treatments for individual patients.  … Read More »

By Amy E. Hamaker

Excellent care and kind treatments prompted Glen Miller and his wife Wendy to help establish the Glen and Wendy Miller/Inderbir Gill Kidney Cancer Research Program.
Courtesy Glen Miller

Glen Miller could never have guessed that a 15-year-old X-ray from a snowmobile accident would lead him to the USC doctor who would change his life.

“Other than a busted ego, I was basically fine after the accident,” said Miller, CEO of Diversified Financial Management Corp. and one of the founders of the Glen and Wendy Miller Family Foundation, a not-for-profit corporation located in Bannockburn, Ill.

The X-ray became important again, years later when Miller’s doctor found a growth on his kidney after prostate problems. “You can see the growth on the old X-ray, although the emergency room staff hadn’t been looking at my kidneys at the time,” he said. … Read More »

By Josh Grossberg

It somehow all flew by in an instant. But here she was, after four years of medical school, receiving her diploma and officially becoming a doctor.

And as if it didn’t go by fast enough, Kaitlin Carroll was the first person called on stage to receive her diploma at the Keck School of Medicine of USC’s commencement ceremony May 18 at the Shrine Auditorium.

USC School of Pharmacy graduate Justin Shintani flashes a victory sign at the school’s May 17 commencement ceremony.
Photo/Jon Nalick

“It’s been eight years since high school,” said Carroll, who also served as the co-president of the student body. “It’s blown by.”

With more than 2,000 family members cheering and waving, the Keck School class entered the hall at the start of the ceremony. The class included 154 M.D. graduates, with three of them also receiving a Ph.D., one an M.B.A. and one an M.P.H.

It was one of several graduation ceremonies held during the week for students in various fields of study across the Health Sciences campus.

The newly minted doctors received a wide range of send-offs that were in turn solemn, poignant and funny.

Commencement speaker, and recipient of the Dean’s Humanitarian Award Robert K. Ross, president and CEO of the California Endowment, wove a story about a 2-year-old boy who was rushed to the hospital after being found in the bottom of a swimming pool. Ross was a resident at the time and got to know the family over the course of the boy’s treatment. The initial news was not good, and the family was offered the chance to remove the boy from his respirator. But they refused, deciding instead to hope for the best.

Ross lost touch with the family, but seven years later received a telephone call. On the other end was the young boy, who was then 9.

“I was talking to a miracle,” Ross told the audience. … Read More »

By Josh Grossberg

 Cells can be stubborn things. A skin cell resists changing into a liver cell, and a heart cell wants to remain a heart cell.

Nobel Laureate Sir John Gurdon lectures on stem cells on May 16 at Aresty Auditorium.
Photo/Steve Cohn

But with the right kind of manipulation, they can be changed—a skin cell can turn into a liver cell or even a pulsing heart cell, Nobel Laureate Sir John Gurdon told a crowd of students, faculty and staff at a talk on May 16 in the Aresty Auditorium.

“The process of cell differentiation is remarkably stable,” Gurdon said. “Very rarely do cells of one kind switch into another kind. We don’t have skin in our brain or liver in our muscles. Nevertheless, it can happen.”

Making it happen is what earned Gurdon the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. In the early 1960s, he was able to replace the immature nucleus in a frog egg cell with the nucleus from a mature intestinal cell. The modified egg developed into a normal frog with the DNA of the mature cells.

In his talk, “Nuclear Transplantation to Prospects of Cell Replacement,” Gurdon told about the advances made in the areas of cloning and nuclear transplantation since his discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed to develop into different kinds of tissue. … Read More »

Harlyne J. Norris received the Elaine Stevely Hoffman Award during commencement ceremonies for the Keck School of Medicine of USC. Through the Norris Foundation, the Norris family has donated nearly $200 million to USC.
Photo/Steve Cohn

By Josh Grossberg

For her and her family’s decades-long commitment to health care at USC, Harlyne J. Norris received the Elaine Stevely Hoffman Award during commencement ceremonies for the Keck School of Medicine of USC, held on May 18 at the Shrine Auditorium.

Before she accepted the honor, Keck School Dean Carmen A. Puliafito thanked her for her “longstanding contribution and unwavering dedication to the Keck School of Medicine and its people.

“She serves as a trusted adviser to the president of the university on health care matters,” he said.

The honor comes as the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center celebrates its 40th anniversary. The cancer center is part of the Keck School.

“The Norris relationship with the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center goes back to a lead gift that her husband, Kenneth Norris Jr., made to the center,” Puliafito said.

A trustee and past chairman of the Kenneth T. and Eileen L. Norris Foundation, Harlyne Norris is a renowned medical benefactor. Through the Norris Foundation, the Norris family has donated nearly $200 million to USC. The family’s legacy can be seen across both the Health Sciences and University Park campuses —from the USC Norris Cancer Hospital and Norris Medical Library to the Norris Cinema Theater and Norris Dental Science Center. … Read More »

A new study from the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center shows targeting both hormone receptors (HRs) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) in first-line treatment of metastatic breast cancer patients significantly increased overall survival times.

A team of researchers led by Debu Tripathy, professor of medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, looked at data provided by RegistHER, a prospective, observational study of 1,023 newly diagnosed HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer patients. … Read More »

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Keck School of Medicine honorees Kayla Dewey and Caitlin Carroll display their awards after the May 16 ceremony.

The Keck School of Medicine Senior Awards Ceremony was held on May 16 on campus. Awards were granted to outstanding Doctor of Medicine candidates on the basis of excellence in academic achievement, research and service.

… Read More »

By Josh Grossberg

Patient Dominic Quagliozzi made 20 paintings that reflected the pain and the loneliness he felt during his 11-day hospital stay.

Dominic Quagliozzi was looking for a unique place to display his artwork. He found it in his hospital room at the Keck Medical Center of USC.

Unusual, yes, but certainly appropriate. Quagliozzi made the art while recovering from an acute exacerbation episode of his cystic fibrosis, a genetic condition that lands him in the hospital two or three times a year.

Quagliozzi channeled his illness through his art, giving viewers a chance to see what cystic fibrosis looks like—at least through the eyes of a trained artist.

In all, he made 20 paintings that reflected the pain and the loneliness he felt during his 11-day hospital stay. An additional image was projected on a bathroom wall. … Read More »