People

Dr. Michelle E. Melisko is a cancer specialist with expertise in breast cancer treatment and research. She is interested in testing new chemotherapy combinations, biological therapies and immunotherapies for breast cancer, with a particular focus on treatment of cancer that has spread to the brain. She also hopes to educate patients and encourage their participation in clinical trials to make more rapid advances in breast cancer treatment.

Dr. Rita Mukhtar specializes in breast surgery and general surgery for urgent conditions. For her patients with breast cancer, she offers expertise in total skin-sparing mastectomies, breast conservation, wire localization surgery (used to show the location of tissue requiring biopsy) and sentinel lymph node biopsy (used to see if cancer has spread).

Dr. Merisa L. Piper is a plastic and reconstructive surgeon who specializes in breast reconstruction and general reconstruction, with expertise in all methods. With the goal of restoring appearance after partial or complete breast removal, she focuses particularly on microsurgery and free tissue transfer, using skin, fat and muscle from another part of the body.

Dr. Hope Rugo is a medical oncologist and hematologist specializing in breast cancer research and treatment. A Clinical Professor of Medicine, Dr. Rugo joined the Breast Care Center in 1999 after a decade of experience at UCSF in malignant hematology and bone marrow transplantation for a variety of diseases, including breast cancer. She entered the field of breast cancer in order to incorporate novel therapies based on an understanding of the biology of cancer with excellent quality of care into the treatment of women with breast cancer.

Dr. Singer is an attending physician and Associate Professor in Radiation Oncology at UCSF, where she specializes in the use of radiation to treat breast cancer, thoracic cancer, and ventricular tachycardia. She also serves as Clinical Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Director in Radiation Oncology and is board-certified in both radiation oncology and MRI safety.

The Spitzer Lab is working to develop our understanding of how the immune system coordinates its responses across the organism with an emphasis on tumor immunology. We combine methods in experimental immunology and cancer biology with computation to understand the modes in which the immune system can respond to tumors and to rationally initiate curative immune responses against cancer.

Laura van ‘t Veer, PhD is Professor of Laboratory Medicine is the Program Leader of the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center Breast Oncology Program (BOP), Director of Applied Genomics with the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, and UCSF-Site Principal Investigator of the Athena Breast Health Network.