California Pacific Research Institute - Currents 2001

Message from Warren S. Browner, MD, MPH

Scientific Director, Research Institute

Much has been written about the growing cost of health care in the United States. What often goes unrecognized is that our health care has also improved greatly. As a result of medical research, remarkable progress has been made in preventing and treating disease. There are new therapies for heart attack and heart failure, ulcers, stroke, AIDS, and many types of cancer. We have immunizations against meningitis, hepatitis, and pneumonia and better ways to treat osteoporosis, hypertension, and high blood cholesterol levels. Many surgical proce-dures now require only tiny incisions. The genetic causes of many diseases, such as cystic fibrosis and breast cancer, are being identified, and treatments based on those discoveries are being developed.

In this issue of Currents, you will read about some of the scientists and clinicians who work at the California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute in the search for better ways to diagnose, prevent, and treat disease.

Sometimes that search involves the study of new diagnostic techniques, such as the use of advanced endoscopic procedures that enable physicians to detect tumors while they are small. Some of our scientists are searching for new ways to treat malig-nant brain tumors. Sometimes that search involves treating the consequences of disease, such as the effects of chronic childhood illness on the siblings of an ill child. We also study the basic mechanisms of conditions such as breast cancer, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and heart disease.

The human body and mind are wondrously complex, which ensures researchers at the Institute a lifetime of searching to understand their mysteries. I hope that this issue of Currents gives you a taste of what we do. Those of you who would like more information are welcome to contact us.

• Research into the Precursors of Breast Cancer Cells Yields New Treatment Strategies
• Center of Excellence in Endoscopic Diagnosis and Therapy
• Technology Transfer in Action: From Patents to Patients
• Distant Healing: Will It Improve the Outcomes of Patients with AIDS and Brain Tumors?
• Herbs as Radiosensitizers May Offer Hope in Treating Brain Tumors
• The Forgotten Children: Well Siblings of the Very Ill
• Are Oxygen-Free Radicals Responsible for Lou Gehrig's Disease? A Conversation with Nancy M. Lee, PhD
• Is the Hip Bone Connected to the Heart? Warren Browner Continues the Search for Links between Bone Metabolism and Heart Health