UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center Ranked as Top 10 in the Nation by U.S. News & World Report

UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center ranks among the top 10 cancer centers in the nation and is rated best in Southern California, 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 “Best Hospitals” guidebook, available now online and in the Aug. 30 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.

The Jonsson Cancer Center is one of only four California cancer centers named among the top 25 nationwide this year, and it’s the only cancer center in Southern California to make the top 10. Designated as a comprehensive cancer center in 1976 by the National Cancer Institute, the 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 and, later, 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 cancer patients at UCLA.

“The Jonsson Cancer Center is known for developing new and more effective targeted therapies to treat cancer and providing leading-edge experimental treatments to patients,” Gasson said. “We have worked and will continue to work very hard to translate our best basic science discoveries into better way to diagnosis, treat and prevent cancer.”

Overall, UCLA’s Jonsson Cancer Center ranked 10th in the nation. Of the three other California cancer centers listed in the top 25, the University of California San Francisco ranked 8th, Stanford Hospital and Clinics ranked 12th and City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte ranked 17th

            The top 10 cancer centers in the nation, according to the U.S. News rankings, are M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX (1); Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY (2); Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD (3); Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN (4); Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center, Boston, MA (5); University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle, WA (6); Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA (7); University of  California, San Francisco Medical Center, (8); Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH (9); and  UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center (10).

            The Jonsson Cancer Center has ranked among the top 10 cancer centers in the nation in the U.S. News survey for 11 of the last 12 years.

            UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center has more than 240 researchers and clinicians engaged in disease research, prevention, detection, control, treatment and education. One of the nation's largest comprehensive cancer centers, the Jonsson center is dedicated to promoting research and translating basic science into leading-edge clinical studies. In July 2011, the Jonsson Cancer Center was named among the top 10 cancer centers nationwide by U.S. News & World Report, a ranking it has held for 11 of the last 12 years. For more information on the Jonsson Cancer Center, visit our website at http://www.cancer.ucla.edu.