Lyudmila Bazhenova, M.D. , and oncologists at Moores UCSD Cancer Center are participating in a study to treat advanced lung cancer patients with a novel kind of cancer vaccine. While many vaccines attempt to pump up the immune system to fight off a cancer, the new vaccine, Lucanix, is genetically engineered to also trick the cancer into turning off its immune system-suppressing activities. The first patients have begun enrolling in a new clinical trial at the Moores UCSD Cancer Center testing the effectiveness of the vaccine. The trial will involve 700 patients at some 90 centers worldwide. Current treatments for advanced lung cancer have limited effectiveness.

A study led by Richard Gallo, M.D., Ph.D. , and Tissa R. Hata, M.D. , suggests that use of oral Vitamin D supplements bolsters production of a protective chemical normally found in the skin, and may help prevent skin infections that are a common result of atopic dermatitis, the most common form of eczema. The study found that use of oral vitamin D appeared to correct a defect in the immune systems in patients with this skin disease. Atopic dermatitis is characterized by areas of severe itching, redness and scaling. Over time, chronic changes can occur due to constant scratching and rubbing, putting patients at increased risk for skin infections by Staph aureus and the herpes and small pox viruses.

A study of the first approximately 100 patients who have received partial breast irradiation with a small, whisk-like, expandable device inserted inside the breast has shown that after one year, the device is effective at sparing nearby healthy tissue from the effects of radiation. The device, called SAVI™, is aimed at providing customized radiation therapy while minimizing exposure to healthy tissue around the breast after a woman has received a lumpectomy for early stage cancer, enabling some to avoid more lengthy treatment. According to Catheryn Yashar, M.D. , the SAVI will allow for expanding the patient population eligible for partial breast irradiation.

UC San Diego will lead a $60 million, five-year, 10-site Clinical Consortium funded by the Department of Defense Psychological Health/Traumatic Brain Injury Research Program (DoD PH/TBI) and directed by Murray B. Stein, M.D., M.P.H. , and co-principal investigator Ronald G. Thomas, Ph.D., to conduct studies leading to the prevention and treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI), two prevalent but poorly understood battlefield-related disorders that affect millions of individuals, both military and civilian. In addition to overseeing the Clinical Consortium, UC San Diego Medical Center is also one of the participating study sites, with Raul Coimbra, M.D., Ph.D. , leading the San Diego TBI/PTSD Clinical Research Center.

UC San Diego is partnering with The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) to develop new methods to treat and prevent kidney failure. UAB’s Division of Nephrology has been awarded a five-year, $4.23 million George M. O’Brien Kidney Research Center grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). UC San Diego will receive approximately $400,000 each year. Together, UC San Diego and UAB will form one of only eight O’Brien centers in the United States. This newly awarded center will provide expertise in clinically relevant and more basic research that will be shared in collaboration with potentially 40 other laboratories, nationally and internationally. Investigators will work together to avoid duplication of talents and techniques with the goal of answering questions that will ultimately prevent acute kidney injury and the progressive loss of kidney function. Ravindra Mehta, M.D., F.A.C.P. , says this partnership designates UCSD/UAB as leading universities in kidney research in the United States.

In an effort to curb the rising rates of HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) along the Mexico-US border, a binational team of researchers led by Thomas L. Patterson, Ph.D. , UC San Diego School of Medicine have shown that brief but personalized behavioral counseling significantly reduced rates and improved condom use among female sex workers in Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. The researchers observed a 40 percent decline in the combined rate of new STIs (including HIV, syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia) in the group of female sex workers who received the 30-minute one-on-one counseling intervention, compared to an encounter that was based on educational information only.