David M. Jablons, M.D.
Professor and Chief, Section of General Thoracic Surgery
Ada Distinguished Professor of Thoracic Oncology
Progam Leader, Thoracic Oncology Program
Director, Thoracic Oncology Laboratory
Education
Residencies
Fellowships
Board Certifications
|
Program Affiliations
Clinical Expertise
Research Interests
|
Biography
Dr. David Jablons is the Ada Distinguished Professor in Thoracic Oncology and Chief of General Thoracic Surgery at UCSF. Dr. Jablons is also Program Leader of Thoracic Oncology at the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer and Director of the Thoracic Oncology Lab at the adjoining UCSF Cancer Research Center. He has a long record of accomplishments and clinical outreach in lung cancer and mesothelioma and is world-renowned in these fields.Dr. Jablons was born and raised in New York City. He received his medical degree from Albany Medical College of Union University New York. In his fourth year of medical school, he won a prestigious preceptorship at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) for clinical science training under Dr. Steven Rosenberg, a world-renowned surgical oncologist and tumor immunologist. This experience kindled his lifelong interest in translational science.
Dr. Jablons began his surgical residency at Tufts-New England Medical Center in Boston. He then completed his surgical oncology fellowship at NCI, focusing on tumor immunology and immunotherapy. Dr. Jablons received his advanced cardiothoracic training as a fellow under Dr. Wayne Isom at Cornell Medical Center (now New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medical Center), and at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Medical Center under Dr. Robert Ginsburg. Dr. Jablons also trained with Dr. David Sugarbaker in lung transplantation at Brigham & Women’s Hospital.
In 1995, Dr. Jablons was recruited by UCSF to build a program in thoracic surgery and thoracic oncology. Upon his promotion to Chief of the Section of General Thoracic Surgery in 1997, Dr. Jablons redirected the focus of his research to molecular biology and genomics. He successfully recruited Liang You, M.D. Ph.D., Zhidong Xu Ph.D., and Biao He, Ph.D. to the Thoracic Oncology Laboratory to pursue target discovery and novel therapies for lung cancer and mesothelioma and other cancers. Key projects include isolation of lung cancer stems cells, the Wnt pathway and mesothelioma, inflammation in lung cancinogenesis and lung cancer system genetics.
Dr. Jablons was among the first to recognize the importance of tissue banking, the preservation of tissue from patients undergoing surgery. Over the past decade, Dr. Jablons and his team have accumulated almost 1,000 specimens of tumor and matched normal tissue, creating one of the largest thoracic tissue banks in the world. This has been extremely important for research into the cancer biology of tumors.
Dr. Jablons is also a world leader in clinical outreach. He founded the UCSF Thoracic Oncology Conference, the oldest such program of its kind, co-chairs the annual UCSF Clinical Cancer Update and the biannual Pan Pacific Lung Cancer Conference. He is also the co-Chair of the 13th World Conference on Lung Cancer to be held in San Francisco in 2009. David Jablons is a member of numerous professional organizations including the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, the American College of Chest Physicians, the American Association for Cancer Research and the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC). He has published over one hundred peer-reviewed articles and is the principal investigator on an NIH R01 grant investigating the Wnt Pathway mesothelioma.
Selected Publications
- Uematsu K, Kanazawa S, You L, He B, Xu Z, Li K, Peterlin BM, McCormick F, Jablons DM. Wnt pathway activation in mesothelioma: evidence of Dishevelled overexpression and transcriptional activity of beta-catenin. Cancer Res. 63: 4547-51, Aug/1/2003.
- He B, You L, Uematsu K, Zang K, Xu Z, Lee AY, Costello JF, McCormick F, Jablons DM. SOCS-3 is frequently silenced by hypermethylation and suppresses cell growth in human lung cancer. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 100: 14133-8, Nov/25/2003.
- Johnson DH, Fehrenbacher L, Novotny WF, Herbst RS, Nemunaitis JJ, Jablons DM, Langer CJ, DeVore RF, Gaudreault J, Damico LA, Holmgren E, Kabbinavar F. Randomized phase II trial comparing bevacizumab plus carboplatin and paclitaxel with carboplatin and paclitaxel alone in previously untreated locally advanced or metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer. J Clin Oncol. 22: 2184-91, Jun/1/2004.
- Mazieres J, He B, You L, Xu Z, Lee AY, Mikami I, Reguart N, Rosell R, McCormick F, Jablons DM. Wnt inhibitory factor-1 is silenced by promoter hypermethylation in human lung cancer. Cancer Res. 64: 4717-20, Jul/15/2004.
- He B, You L, Uematsu K, Xu Z, Lee AY, Matsangou M, McCormick F, Jablons DM. A monoclonal antibody against Wnt-1 induces apoptosis in human cancer cells. Neoplasia. 6: 7-14.
Media Links
Lung Cancer Survivors Find Reason for Hope
In a room overflowing with people at the UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center, David M. Jablons, MD, Professor and Chief of Thoracic Surgery, gave the audience, many of whom were patients under his care, a reason to hope.
Watch Video
Read related story in UCSF Today
Brothers in Arms: Working nights at UCSF to cure mesothelioma, spurred by a widower's grief and hard-raised cash
San Francisco Chronicle Magazine
August 14, 2005
"In the 18 months since, Peterson and Jablons have formed one of the more unusual partnerships in Bay Area medical research. Jablons, 48, never left the streets of Manhattan until he went to Yale to pursue American literature and pre-med. Peterson, 47, never left the beaches of Aptos until he went to Cal to pursue baseball. But they are the same height and build and have the same eye color. Under laboratory light they could be mistaken for brothers, and that's what they've become. Brothers-in-arms against mesothelioma..." Read more
Cancer survivor takes fight against disease to the streets
San Francisco Chronicle
April 23, 2004
"Running a marathon without a third of your right lung might seem impossible, but for Mike Wooldridge it's just another day on the road. Diagnosed with a fist-sized tumor in his right lung a year ago, the Pleasant Hill Web site designer was initially given a 10 to 15 percent chance of surviving. Today he's running 30 miles a week, training to compete in his first marathon......." Read more
He Survived a Rare Form of Thoracic Cancer
UCSF Today
June 28,2002
"The San Francisco man has survived a rare form of thoracic cancer called thymoma that had him in a coma for seven weeks, required months of rehabilitation and left him with one lung. Today, he's back at work directing the choir of 30 boys and 12 men at the Episcopalian cathedral, where music is a medium for his continued healing.
Putnam, 34, is alive today thanks to the efforts of a UCSF Medical Center team that included thoracic surgeon David Jablons, MD, who removed the tumor and infected right lung last march, and oncologist Thierry Jahan, MD, who directed his chemotherapy before the surgery ........" Read more