A commitment to cancer

David R. Gandara, M.D., is a professor of medicine and leading oncologist at the UC Davis Cancer Center, where he spearheads a number of projects exploring new ways of treating cancer patients. These projects, including personalized chemotherapy treatments and patient-derived cell transplants, are some of the reasons that the center has been deemed one of only 41 comprehensive cancer centers in the U.S. by the National Cancer Institute.

Gandara is immensely proud of the UC Davis Cancer Center and its accomplishments.

“We’re one of the youngest NCI designated cancer centers and have the fasted trajectory in history to being designated with comprehensive status,” said Gandara who is the director Thoracic Oncology Program. “This designation allows us to apply for certain grants and supplements to our grant from the National Cancer Institute that other people can’t even apply for.”

Since federal funding for medical research has decreased during the past years, Gandara and his wife, Diane, consider it a priority to contribute to the UC Davis Cancer Center. Their donation during The Campaign for UC Davis will help grow existing cancer research programs and add on to the existing facilities.

“I am a strong believer in the adage that ‘the future is now’. This is the way we should look at investment in UC Davis,” Gandara said.  “I want to encourage other faculty to do the same thing. The future is now. The time to invest in UC Davis is now.”