Dr. John A. Butler, surgical director of the Breast Health Center at UC Irvine Medical Center, attends patients at the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, Orange County's only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center. Butler also actively conducts cancer research. His work focuses on investigating and developing more effective technologies…
Growing up in Tokyo, Dr. Shuichi Suzuki was well aware of the destruction that stroke can cause. Stroke was Japan’s No. 1 cause of death at the time. He knew neighbors who died of stroke, was aware of others who suffered life-changing disabilities, and saw how the disease affected not…
When Ken Mitchell first met UCI Health transplant surgeon Dr. Clarence Foster, he was a diabetic in kidney failure. Mitchell, a 42-year-old caterer, had to prick his finger eight times a day to test his blood sugar. His condition required four-hour dialysis sessions, four times a week. His life was…
Hemorrhaging and without a pulse, new mother Stephanie Shaffer appeared close to death in an intensive care unit at UC Irvine Medical Center. Shaffer suffers from Klippel-Trenaunay-Weber syndrome, a rare congenital vascular disorder that affects blood and lymph vessels. Soon after giving birth to her son, Brian, at a south…
Healthier cafeteria choices, longer and more intense periods of physical activity and robust in-school education programs can lower rates of obesity and other risk factors for type 2 diabetes, according to a national study called HEALTHY. "We found that innovative PE programs, healthier food choices in school lunches and snacks…
Minimizing a cancer patient's radiation exposure during diagnostic scanning and treatment is a continuing goal in oncology. As the recent debate over mammograms shows, physicians struggle with the issue of radiation exposure even in preventive procedures. Since January, UC Irvine's Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center has used an innovative radiotherapy…
Surgery without large, open incisions is a proven advancement offered at UC Irvine, where women may have many treatment options when they face gynecologic conditions such as uterine fibroids, endometriosis and ovarian cysts. The term for such procedures is “minimally invasive surgery,” or MIS. It includes a variety of techniques…
Carey Moyer was 31 and still a newlywed when she felt a lump in her right breast in January 2010. "It felt like a rock, but it didn’t hurt when I touched it," Moyer recalls. "So, of course I went online." She found little reassurance. When her gynecologist felt the…
When she was eight years old, Karen Sommers watched a movie about a young woman struggling with leukemia. It made her realized that she wanted to help people with cancer. Sommers has been doing exactly that for nearly 30 years, first as a registered nurse and today as a nurse…
Dr. Charles Vega first walked into the UCI Health Family Health Center as a medical school graduate eager to make a difference in his first job as a physician. Twelve years later, his impact is felt both within the community of hundreds of grateful patients and their families he sees…
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