Exceptional Patient Care, Innovative Research, Surgical Excellence

The UCSF Endocrine Surgery and Oncology program delivers state-of-the-art surgical care, complemented by a strong clinical research enterprise geared towards discovering effective therapies to treat thyroid and other endocrine cancers. This approach is particularly important for patients who have exhausted conventional therapies. Our lab research is focused on gaining a better understanding of thyroid cancer biology, developing and improving diagnostic and predictive tests, and finding novel and innovative treatments.

Endocrine cancers, those affecting the thyroid, parathyroid, adrenal gland and endocrine pancreas, are diagnosed in more than 35,000 people in the U.S. annually. The vast majority of these are thyroid cancers, a disease that strikes three times as many women as men, and is now the fastest growing cancer diagnosis in the U.S.

The UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center combines basic science, clinical research, epidemiology/cancer control and patient care from throughout the University of California, San Francisco system. UCSF's long tradition of excellence in cancer research includes the Nobel Prize-winning work of J. Michael Bishop and Harold Varmus, who discovered cancer-causing oncogenes. 

We are proud to be designated a comprehensive cancer center by the National Cancer Institute, which is part of the National Institutes of Health. The “comprehensive” designation—NCI’s highest ranking—is awarded after a rigorous evaluation process which shows that the center pursues scientific excellence and has the capability to integrate diverse research approaches to cancer.