Patricia Ganz: Expert on cancer survivorship

By Kim Irwin

For two decades, Patricia Ganz has conducted ground-breaking research that has changed the face of cancer survivorship.

A founding member of the National Coalition of Cancer Survivors, Ganz is considered the top national expert on quality of life after breast cancer, and her leading-edge studies have changed the way the medical field views the post treatment health problems faced by millions of former patients nationwide. Ganz, a professor of health services in the School of Public Health as well as a professor of medicine in the David Geffen School of Medicine, is director of cancer prevention and control research in the Jonsson Cancer Center.

In recognition of her achievements, Ganz recently was elected to the National Academies' Institute of Medicine, considered one of the highest honors bestowed to professionals in the fields of medicine and health. Chosen by current active members, candidates undergo a highly selective process and are nominated based on their professional achievements and commitment to service.

This month, she will also receive the American Cancer Society's Distinguished Service Award, an honor recognizing her outstanding contributions in the field of cancer.

Ganz grew up in Beverly Hills, the daughter of a physician and a homemaker who later ran a family business. The oldest of two children, she attended Harvard where she majored in biology. But she spent summers working in UCLA laboratories. In her third year of college, Ganz decided to attend medical school. She was one of only three women in a class of 120 UCLA medical students.

Originally Ganz intended to become a cardiologist when she finished medical school. But a rotation through medical oncology changed everything. It was 1973, two years after President Richard Nixon declared war on cancer. Cisplatinum was saving the lives of young men who had been dying of testicular cancer. Oncology, Ganz thought presciently, would be the field where she could make a real difference.

"I had the naïve hope that we were on the road to a cure for cancer," said Ganz. "For me, there was so much more hope in cancer care. And it was much more challenging in terms of prevention."

Ganz focused on an area that no one else seemed interested in — the quality of life for cancer patients and survivors. In 1978, after she completed her residency, Ganz chose to work at the Sepulveda VA Medical Center, where she opened a hospice center to provide palliative care to patients, from diagnosis until death. Instead of focusing on the last few weeks of life, Ganz and her team provided multidisciplinary, symptom-focused care from diagnosis on.

Ganz realized that doctors shouldn’t wait until the end of life to manage pain, address fatigue or help patients with psychological distress.

"We needed to do that while they were still in treatment," she said.

Her work focused not only on their physical symptoms, but also on their emotional, nutritional and psychological needs. She launched support groups to help patients cope with their disease.

"I recognized that we had to take care of all of a patient's needs, not just their medical treatment," she said. So she teamed up with a psychiatrist and a psychologist and, using grant money, they launched a program to determine the needs of cancer patients during and after treatment.

"If we wanted to understand how patients cope, we had to understand what they were coping with," she said. "We had to understand the day-to-day problems they faced."

That work led to other grants and more research in this emerging specialty. Eventually, Ganz focused on breast cancer patients. By the mid-1980s and early 1990s, treatments for breast cancer were improving, as was the understanding of the biology of breast cancer. Women were living longer after treatment. Though they beat their cancer, they often suffered from fatigue, fertility issues, mental fogginess and cardiac problems.

"The treatment regimen choice," Ganz realized, "made a difference."

In 1986, Ganz was among a small group of physicians and scientists who founded the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship, the first national organization launched for survivors.

In 1992, she applied for and landed a position at UCLA that straddled health services and cancer control. She obtained grants and launched revolutionary new programs, such as the High Risk Program to help those at risk for developing breast cancer. She played an integral role in the national Breast Cancer Prevention Trial — "I thought, 'Wouldn’t it be nice not to have to tell people they had cancer?'" Ganz said. The trial was launched in the early 1990s to determine if Tamoxifen could prevent breast cancer, and she was tagged to lead the quality of life portion of this large study.

In 1997, after the BRCA1 and BRCA2 breast cancer genes were cloned, Ganz launched the UCLA Family Cancer Registry and Genetic Evaluation Program for those with a personal or family history of cancer. Today, the registry has more than 1,000 people on its rolls.

The mother of a physician and a law student, and the wife of a UCLA faculty members and scientist at the cancer center, Professor Tomas Ganz, she continues to be there for cancer survivors. Last year, she was selected to head up a new center for cancer survivors, funded with a grant from seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong. Ganz serves as director of the UCLA-LIVESTRONG Survivorship Center of Excellence, which addresses the needs of the ever-increasing number of cancer survivors in the United States.

Whether it was fate or destiny, Ganz's choice of oncology has made a difference, as she had hoped all those years ago.

"You never know when you treat a patient whether they will be a survivor or not," Ganz said. "And when you are successful, it’s magic. I feel really lucky to have had the experience I’ve had."