A Message from the Chief

For more than 50 years, UCSF has been a leader in endocrine surgery. Dr. Orlo H. Clark, in many ways one of the original founders of the specialty of endocrine surgery, established our Endocrine Surgical Oncology Program in 1990, as one of the earliest programs in the world. He built it on a three-fold mission: to provide compassionate care, perform innovative research, and train the future leaders of our field. That mission still guides us, and it has grown into something larger.

Today, UCSF is a center of excellence and a destination for patients with endocrine tumors from all over the world, including thyroid cancer, parathyroid disease, and adrenal tumors and metastases. Our surgeons are internationally recognized thought leaders who write the guidelines that shape endocrine care in the United States and around the world, and who lead national and international societies, research efforts, and educational programs.

They are also superb clinical surgeons, caring for children and adults, for sporadic disease and for inherited endocrine syndromes, and they are prepared to manage cases of any difficulty or complexity. Patients and colleagues turn to our surgeons because experience matters most when the diagnosis is rare, the anatomy is challenging, or the disease is advanced. Each year, we care for more than 1,000 patients.

We pioneer new surgical techniques, advance clinical science, and bring new treatments from the laboratory and clinical trials to the bedside. We also train the next generation: more than 100 fellows have learned with us, and many now lead endocrine surgery programs across the United States and around the world.

Many of the surgeons practicing in our own region trained here, and when they face a difficult endocrine case, they call us for advice. We are the teachers and mentors behind much of the endocrine surgery in this community, so when you choose UCSF, you are going directly to the source, to the surgeons who trained many of the others and who have the experience to take on the hardest cases.

Endocrine surgeons at UCSF commonly treat the following diseases (grouped by area): 

• Thyroid (thyroid nodules and goiters, thyroid cancer, Graves' disease) 
• Parathyroid (primary hyperparathyroidism, other parathyroid tumors and parathyroid cancers) 
• Adrenal (pheochromocytoma, Cushing's syndrome, hyperaldosteronism, adrenocortical cancer, adrenal metastases, incidentaloma and cysts) 
• Pancreas (insulinoma, gastrinoma, neuroendocrine tumors of the pancreas).

The UCSF Endocrine Surgery & Oncology Practice is comprised of the following dedicated specialized centers: 

• Advanced Thyroid Surgery Center
• Advanced Center for Benign Non-operative Thyroid Care and Ablation
• Advanced Parathyroid Surgery Center 
• Center for Advanced Adrenal Surgery 
• Familial Endocrine Neoplasia Program

Whether you are a patient looking for answers or a physician looking for a trusted partner on a complex case, we welcome you.

Sincerely,