Beyond conventional treatments
(continued)

Research is further enhanced by UC Davis' collaboration with the California Cancer Consortium, which brings together the best minds in cancer research from UC Davis, the University of Southern California and the City of Hope National Medical Center.

Some 25 UC Davis investigators spanning the multidisciplinary gamut from oncologists to pharmacologists, molecular biologists to clinical scientists are involved in this effort.

Their studies of developmental therapeutics combine the best of the bench-to-bedside approach that defines translational research: While patients are enrolled in carefully-monitored trials, other scientists study the patient's histological tumor samples for molecular clues that might predict response, and to see how the new drugs affects tumors cells in vitro.

The newest cancer therapies target the molecular triggers of cancer in an effort to put an end to runaway cell division and to allow old and damaged cells to die naturally, a process known as programmed cell death, or apoptosis.

One promising class of drugs are hypoxic cytotoxins, drugs that act selectively against poorly oxygenated cancer cells.

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Physicians (from left) Bryan Leigh, David Gandara and Richard Shelton confer on a lung cancer case.