UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center named one of nation's top 12 cancer centers

UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center is ranked among the top 12 cancer centers in the nation, according to a U.S. News & World Report survey of board-certified physicians from across the country. The survey reviewed patient outcomes, the cancer center's reputation among physicians, mortality rates and other care-related factors.

The ranking is included in the magazine's 2013-14 guide to America's "Best Hospitals," available online here and will be featured in the August print issue of U.S. News & World Report. The centers that rank highest in the survey often are those that treat the sickest patients and focus on translational research.

UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center is one of only four California cancer centers named among the top 20 nationwide this year. The Jonsson Cancer Center has gained an international reputation for taking leading-edge laboratory research and translating it into new and more effective treatments in the clinic. Successful targeted therapies such as Herceptin, Avastin, Tarceva, Gleevec and Sprycel were developed based on research conducted in cancer center laboratories or in clinical research with UCLA patients.

Judith C. Gasson, the cancer center's director and a professor of medicine and biological chemistry, said the U.S. News ranking reflects the innovative basic and clinical research being done at the center and the outstanding medical care available to patients with cancer at UCLA.

"The Jonsson Cancer Center has established an international reputation for developing targeted cancer therapies and providing leading-edge experimental treatments," Gasson said. "We have worked and will continue to work very hard to translate basic science discoveries into better diagnosis, treatment and prevention of cancer."
Overall, UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center ranked 11th in the nation. Of the four other California cancer centers listed in the top 20, the University of California San Francisco ranked 7th, Stanford Hospital and Clinics in Palo Alto ranked 10th and City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte ranked 15th.

The top 10 cancer centers in the nation, according to the U.S. News rankings, are MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX (1); Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY (2); Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN (3); Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD (4); Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Center, Boston, MA (5); Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA (6); University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle, WA and University of California, San Francisco Medical Center, (tied for 7); Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH (9); and Stanford Hospital and Clinics, Palo Alto, CA (10).

The Jonsson Cancer Center has ranked among the top 12 cancer centers in the nation in the U.S. News survey for the last 14 years.

SOURCE UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center