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Bonnie J. and Anthony Addario Endowed Chair in Thoracic Oncology
The newly created Chair in Thoracic Oncology is in honor of thoracic oncologist Thierry Jahan, M.D.
Lung Cancer Foundation's Annual Gala on Saturday, Nov. 21, 2009
A benefit for Lung Cancer Research and to celebrate the Addario Lung Cancer Medical Institute.
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A gift to the Thoracic Oncology Progam helps us discover new treatments and cures for lung cancer, esophageal cancer and mesothelioma.
David M. Jablons, M.D.
Professor and Chief, Section of General Thoracic Surgery
Ada Distinguished Professor of Thoracic Oncology
Program Leader, Thoracic Oncology Program
Director, Thoracic Oncology Laboratory
Contact Information
Education
- Albany Medical College of Union University, M.D., 1984
- Yale University, B.A., American Literature, 1979
Residencies
- Oak Knoll Naval Hospital, Oakland, CA, General Surgery, 1984-85
- Tufts University/New England Medical Center, General Surgery, 1985-86, 89-91
Fellowships
- NCI/NIH, Surgery Branch, Surgical Oncology, 1986-89
- Cornell University Medical Center, Cardiothoracic Surgery, 1991-93
- Brigham & Women's Hospital, Lung Transplantation, 1992
- New York Hospital/Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Thoracic Surgery
Board Certification
- American Board of Surgery
- American Board of Thoracic Surgery
Program Affiliations
- Thoracic Oncology Program
- Member, UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center
Clinical Expertise
- Lung Cancer
- Mesothelioma
- Minimally Invasive Thoracic Surgery
- Lung Transplantation
- Esophageal Cancer
- Mediastinal Masses
Research Interests
- Early Detection and Screening
- Lung Transplants for Bronchioloalveolar Carcinoma (BAC)
- Mesothelioma
- Molecular Tumor Profiling
- Targeted Biological Therapies
- Wnt Pathway In Lung Cancer
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
- Fujii N, You L, Xu Z, Uematsu K, Shan J, He B, Mikami I, Edmondson LR, Neale G, Zheng J, Guy RK, Jablons DM. An Antagonist of Dishevelled Protein-Protein Interaction Suppresses {beta}-Catenin-Dependent Tumor Cell Growth. Cancer Res, Jan/15/2007;67(2):573-9.
- Raz DJ, Glidden DV, Odisho AY, Jablons DM. Clinical characteristics and survival of patients with surgically resected, incidentally detected lung cancer. J Thorac Oncol, Feb/2007;2(2):125-30.
- Clément G, Jablons DM, Benhattar J. Targeting the Wnt signaling pathway to treat Barrett's esophagus. Expert Opin Ther Targets, Mar/2007;11(3):375-389.
- Brouchet L, Bauvin E, Marcheix B, Bigay-Game L, Renaud C, Berjaud J, Falcoze PE, Venissac N, Raz D, Jablons DM, Mazieres J, Dahan. Impact of Induction Treatment on Postoperative Complications in the Treatment of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer, Journal of Thoracic Oncology, 03/2007.
- Kim J, You L, Xu Z, Kuchenbecker K, Raz D, He B, Jablons D. Wnt inhibitory factor inhibits lung cancer cell growth. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg, Mar/2007;133(3):733-7.
In the News
Opera Star Sings Praises of Targeted Lung Cancer Therapy
KGO ABC7 Video - Jul 20, 2009Last October, opera singer Zheng Cao fell during a performance and had no idea why. Later, it turned out she had advanced lung cancer. Now, as a result of treatment with a new type of targeted therapy, her cancer is retreating. Personalized medicine - that is, customizing the treatment to the patient's tumor -is rapidly gaining ground in the treatment of lung cancer.This has given hope to patients like Zheng Cao that their lung cancer can be successfully treated.
UCSF Celebrates Award of New Chair to Thierry Jahan, M.D.
Department of Surgery at UCSF - Jun 01, 2009The Bonnie J. and Anthony Addario Endowed Chair in Thoracic Oncology has been created in the Department of Surgery in honor of Thierry Jahan, M.D., an Associate Professor of Medicine at UCSF, who will occupy the Chair as its first recipient. Dr. Jahan is the one of the region's most highly regarded thoracic oncologists and sarcoma specialists, known among patients, their families, and colleagues for his deep sense of empathy and compassion. Dr. Jahan co-founded the multidisciplinary Thoracic Oncology Program with David Jablons, Chief of the Section of General Thoracic Surgery. On July 9, 2009, there was a celebration held at the Kalmonovitz Library at UCSF to honor Dr. Jahan and his appointment to the newly created Chair.
13th World Conference on Lung Cancer
- May 27, 2009Dr. David Jablons, Chief of the Thoracic Section, is co-chairing the 13th World Conference on Lung Cancer, July 31 - August 4, 2009. The meeting will be held at the Moscone West in San Francisco.
Lung Cancer Now Is the Focus of Powerful Genetics Research
UCSF News - Science Cafe - Feb 05, 2009"The lung cancer tissue bank now enables researchers at the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center to explore more deeply the role of specific genes in lung cancer, according to David Jablons, MD, chief of thoracic surgery at UCSF and leader of the Thoracic Oncology Program......'There are so many genes that are interrelated that we never suspected had anything to do with one another' Jablons says. "This systems genetics approach to cancer is a whole new frontier.'
Putting Drug Development In Patients' Hands
Wall Street Journal Online - Jul 29, 2008"To find answers, Mrs. Addario and her husband, along with David M. Jablons, her surgeon from the University of California, San Francisco, put together a two-day conference last fall of lung cancer researchers from major institutions around the world. She says the group identified a number of problems that hinder progress toward a cure. Among them: Researchers didn't know what others were doing, tissue and blood specimens needed for experiments weren't centrally located or shared, and the findings of experiments weren't integrated to help assess what the key priorities should be. Mrs. Addario started a new organization, the Addario Lung Cancer Medical Institute, and hiredCollabRx to address some of these issues. The company is helping the institute build a virtual specimen bank where researchers participating in the project can share patient specimens and establish joint standards for collecting future specimens."
Former executive employs skills to fight lung cancer
San Francisco Chronicle, CA - Dec 30, 2007"Bonnie J. Addario is a lung cancer survivor who was motivated to start a foundation dedicated to raising awareness about the disease. 'I was just outraged about the lung cancer statistics, about the fact that 450 people a day die just in the United States,' she said.............David Jablons was one of the four doctors who performed Addario's surgery at UCSF. Because Addario asked so many questions while she was under his care, Jablons asked Addario to become a member of his thoracic advisory board."
Lung Cancer Survivors Find Reason for Hope
UCSF News, CA - Dec 11, 2006Before an overflow crowd at the UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center, members of the Thoracic Oncology Program speak about the challenges of lung cancer and the progress that has been made in finding effective treatments and one day a cure.
UCSF Researchers Fingerprint Lung Tumors, Test New Drug Candidate
UCSF Today, CA - Jul 27, 2006Adding their own contributions to a rapidly advancing field, UCSF researchers - along with colleagues from Incyte Corporation and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center - have described new targets in lung cancer and evaluated a promising new drug candidate that halts growth signals in tumor cells grown in the lab. Their report is featured in the July issue of the scientific journal Cancer Cell.
Brothers in Arms - Working nights at UCSF to cure mesothelioma, spurred by a widower's grief and hard-raised cash
San Francisco Chronicle - Aug 14, 2005"Dr. David Jablons couldn't save Karen Peterson's life or even extend it. But he could give quality to whatever life she had left. That turned out to be about nine months, long enough for her twin boys to see her waterskiing on Lake Tahoe and boogie-boarding in Oceanside and laughing more than coughing."
"Jablons, chief cardiothoracic surgeon at UCSF, was the last in a line of specialists Peterson had sought out coast to coast in a 22-month battle against mesothelioma, the asbestos-induced cancer that had stuck like glue in the lining of her lungs. Of all the doctors she had seen, Jablons had been the most realistic and honest about her chances, so he was the one her husband, Jeff Peterson, called a month after she died."
Cancer survivor takes fight against disease to the streets
San Francisco Chronicle - Apr 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......."
Choir Director Survived a Rare Form of Thoracic Cancer
UCSF Today - Jun 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 ........
