Determined Progress

As head of oncology, Jeffrey Weber has a goal to keep the division at the lead in the
fight against cancer.

by Jon Nalick

When Jeffrey Weber, M.D., Ph.D., the Lucy and Berle Adams Chair in Cancer Research, and associate professor of medicine and microbiology at the Keck School of Medicine, assumed the post of chief of the Department of Medicine’s oncology division in February, he set his sights on a single goal: increased growth for the division.

Adding new faculty members and the clinical and research space they need to work, he says, is required for the division to remain an engine for progress in the fight against cancer. In an effort to bring his goal closer to reality, Weber says, the division has gained three new recruits in 2004 and plans to add two more in 2005.
“Failure is not an option,” Weber says, in part because of the crucial leadership role the division plays at the USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center: The division accounts for more patients seen than any other division at the Norris Hospital, as well as most of the cancer center’s funded clinical trials.

“Our success has a ripple effect on the whole center,” he says.

A nationally known scientist in cancer immunology, Weber focuses his research on melanoma tumor vaccines as well as drugs that enhance the immune system’s response to tumor cells and those that attack tumor cells in patients with high-risk and metastatic melanomas.

Weber says he was drawn to the treatment of melanomas because it provides the purest test of the efficacy of immunologic cancer treatments: “If immunologic approaches are going to work, they are going to work in this field.”

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) is hoping he is right: It just provided Weber with a $2.5 million grant for a 75-patient study of an antibody booster to aid melanoma patients.

Peter Jones, Ph.D., director of USC/Norris, calls Weber an especially appropriate choice to lead the division, praising his extensive expertise in clinical trials.

“Dr. Weber is a well-funded researcher with major grants from the National Institutes of Health, the National Cancer Institute, the Beckman Foundation and other key organizations committed to the fight against cancer. With his experience in clinical trials and his demonstrated leadership, he possesses the skills and the drive to help propel the division to even greater success,” Jones says.

Weber received his doctorate in molecular cell biology from Rockefeller University in New York and his medical degree from New York University School of Medicine. Following an internship and residency at the University of California at San Diego, he completed a fellowship and became the senior investigator in tumor immunology at the NCI. Weber joined USC/Norris in 1995.

Weber says that within 10 years, he expects the division to grow to include as many as 16 members and serve as a major national leader in translational research.

“We have to move beyond the classic paradigm at this campus of strength in clinical medicine to strength in clinical research and lab research,” he says. “Research, and the ability to translate novel laboratory findings into effective treatments, will determine progress in the fight against cancer in the years to come.”